Culture vs. economy debates

• We should not reduce these two approaches to mutually exclusive focus on institutions (political economy) and interpretation of texts (cultural studies)—in a way that doesn’t leave out everything that has to do with production.
  • We need both sets of tools!
  • Cultural studies bring new analyses of power representation & identity
  • Contrasting epistemology (how we know what we know): political economy (we are shaped by certain factors, such as ethnicity)/realism/materialism & cultural studies (we know what we know because society influenced us to see things in a certain way)/constructivism/idealism

Habermas and the bourgeois public sphere (no actual reading on Habermas, just background info for discussion)

• There wasn’t always a ‘public’ for people to participate in. How did they emerge?
• Public sphere—we use this term to associate the rise of the middle class (bourgeois)
• There is a positive and public role for the media in society, not entirely taken over by commodity.
• Conception of ‘the public’, not as an abstract principle, but as culturally specific social formation.
• 18^th century European public: open debate and exchange of views without threat of domination—through public discussion!

The (ideal) bourgeois public sphere

• Anyone can be a part of it. Didn’t have to be part of the elite, a judge, high ranking officer, etc.
  • Disregard for social and economic status
• Debate on areas of political, economic, and social life never previously questioned
• Inclusivity: spokespersons for a much larger public—they spoke for everyone. There weren’t ways of keeping people out because everyone who wanted to participate could participate.
• New forms of publication, mainly the periodical and the newspaper—gradually the rise of the digital stream.

Critique of Habermas and revisions of his theory

• John Thompson:
  • ideal public was in practice quite exclusive
    • There were some times of publics that he didn’t look at (the ones outside the bourgeois.)
    • People who weren’t literate couldn’t participate
• Public sphere depended on the concurrent creation of a private and domestic sphere
• Public dichotomy: gender divide in private/public communication
• Is the decline of the public sphere happening? Is the mass media limiting public debate?
• Public sphere is not so much ‘feudalized’ (controlled by personality—celebrities and other crap) like Habermas said, but rather globalized (allowing more public input)

Public sphere as theory of democracy

• Habermas assumes that everyone who participates in the public sphere will treat other people’s views rationally and decide which is the best view for political or social ends.
• ‘Theory of communicative action:’ communication depends on agreement about terms of dialogue.
• Critics have said that it’s hard to base a theory on the premise of democracy on the belief that people will always act rationally—sometimes we have emotions (i.e. Fox news and their devilish emotions)
• Habermas doesn’t account for the residues of the irrational and unconscious
• So what is the role of the media in the public sphere?

Mass media and the public sphere

• Early publics still relied on oral dialogue and face to face communication
• Mass mediated communication is one-wary communicationàit doesn’t always result in generating discussions
• Media do not create a public through dialogue, but through participation as audiences and spectators—we have a more passive role
• Privatized consumption of media in the home has changed the nature of the public sphere

The public sphere and public broadcasting

• Power and influence of commercial media grows in the face of cutbacks to public media
  • The more cutbacks to public media, the less room there is for debate
• Re-examine public broadcasting and how it can be maintained
  • E.g. a lot of people are critical of CBC because only certain types of people watch it, certain types of people work there…
• Public broadcasting is designed to be insulated from state control, but is still accountable. Public or audience should be defined in terms of political relations rather than economic
• Conclusions: political and economic are 2 different ways

Decline of the public sphere, commercialism, neoliberalism

• End of twentieth century political changes, including the fall of communism
• Deregulation of media encourages rapid consolidation and convergence
  • Deregulation of media promoted economic view of media—industries are thriving from convergence
• Public sphere as rational debate about ‘foundational truths
• Or is the public sphere a kind of intersubjective dialogue about relative truths and social values. (read through this section in the article, number 2?)