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What do we mean by the public sphere and what are its main functions?
The Public Sphere is a phrase coined by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. It refers to all the mediums and places that people use to express and devise opinions and views. It is these places that people have formed democratic society on and how they continue to be maintained is through the continued use of Public Spheres. This is shown by Habermas writings;
a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere assemble to form a public body
The idea of the Public Sphere also strongly promotes the idea of free speech within society. The Public Sphere was a forum where people could express freely their views with others on matters of social concern. The use of the Public Sphere was not there to air personal issues, but instead to raise more general topics that could effect any important executive decisions that needed to be made concerning the public. Issues raised in public sphere usually where concerning politics, culture and society. According to Jakob Linaa Jensen of the University of Aarhus, Denmark there are four main functions of the public sphere, these being Agenda setting, problem solving, deliberation and defining common values.
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Agenda setting is the task of finding out what is important to those within the public circle. This could be anything from town maintenance to federal laws. Daily views concerning these subjects are expressed and criticized, in Television, newspapers and other mediums and simply through one on one communication at a more traditional and primal level.
Problem solving links closely into this. It takes a balance of opinion to determine the solutions required, and once again a use of various mediums can help to show public views. While more centralized Medias, such as television and radio allow for fewer views, the internet allows for simultaneous and unfiltered opinions from a wider range of people.
Deliberation and defining common values is generally left up to fewer people, and in this case usually the government or another appointed body. Because of the many views of people it is difficult to please all and that is why it is left to these people to make decisions. However it is also this step that is the public spheres major flaw. Because effectively everybody gets to have their say, it will rarely be possible for all to come to a unanimous decision on something. And because these bodies that are meant to represent the people will never be foolproof and without their own personal agendas it is difficult to ever truly achieve a working a cohesive Public Sphere.
The public sphere is what much of modern western culture is based on, and it is strongly rooted in democracy, and with democracy, as with the idea of the Public Sphere there will always be unfixable faults within it that will hinder the true creation of the “realm” in which a true public opinion can be created.
The media is the public sphere in contemporary western world. Discuss.
Habermas’s accounts of how the Public Sphere was originally approached, in ideas such as the public forum or town meeting may no longer apply but there are direct correlations between those forms of public sphere and today’s mass media. Radio and television are all forms of public forum that allow people to express views. In more recent years the internet has allowed for an escalated use of the original public forum to allow almost all citizens to easily and freely express themselves. And because the internet disguises the age, gender, ethnicity, location and social-standing of the speakers it gives all people an equal ground. Because of the vastness of the internet, and more generally other forms of media, the morals and principles of various peoples can be recognized and more easily understood, and therefore various points of views can be rationalized by opposing parties, so that a more concise and fair opinion can be made by a more unified public.
It is through the use of mass media that people are informed and often make decisions on a variety of topics. Sometimes this information can be tainted with the ideals of other more powerful people. But it is still the cornerstone of the modern democratic society that allows for these sources of information to run.
With this however we do run into problems. The media tends to be used as a way for certain groups, and powerful individuals to influence and manipulate the way people think about thinks, and thus weakens the value of the public sphere. While the internet has certainly given a new and much deeper level to the idea of the public sphere in relation to everybody having a chance to react and give opinions on things, slightly older forms of media such as Television, Press and Radio are still traditionally run by only a few of the world’s people. This control brings emphasis to certain peoples views more so then others, such as through Rupert Murdoch’s outwardly right-wing news channel Fox News Network. This example shows how it is still only a few people at the very top that control much of the worlds media, and in doing so manipulate and control much of the worlds public sphere.
While it may seem simplistic to distill the whole public sphere down to simply the mass media, because there are still such dominant players in the world of media who continue to have there own personal agendas, forms of communication such as the internet work hard to give every person, no matter how important a voice.
Every visual text can be read as a story, but the stories that are made depend on a person’s cultural literacy. Discuss referring to any two photographs below.
A visual work is something that is not written. It can be a painting, a photograph or moving images. Each one of those visual works tells a story. This story is very dependant on persons cultural literacy of the issues involved in it. And therefore one person may be able to dissect and appreciate work on a much deeper level then others. A person’s dependence on their own cultural literacy to understand a piece of work will vary depending on their age, sex, race and location. Cultural literacy is something that is acquired and negotiated over time.
Photograph ‘A’ shows a woman taking a moment away from her toiling to have her photo taken. The most striking element of the photo is that it is a woman in that has been placed in this situation. Traditionally it is the man who does the laborious work, and therefore a cultural literacy of this typecast of woman and their roles is required to understand the photos point. This distinction is also made more evident through the fact that the woman is holding a hoe, or other farm instrument. This confirms that the woman is in fact working on the property and this rule out the option of her simply being a tourist or visitor. The meaning systems required to properly understand the context in which the focus of this photo has been placed also requires a knowledge and literacy of the fashion and figure of the person within the photo. Their choice of clothing also brings into question their financial situation that also raises issues of her purpose and reason on the farm.
Photograph ‘C’ similarly shows a women in a possible out of place context. The woman in the photo is shown in a diner or restaurant uniform and is depressingly looking into the camera. Her expression shows that she feels she doesn’t deserve to be in this situation. And with closer inspection, her hair and wearing of earrings and jewelry seem to show a more glamorous side of her that is being belittled by her job and uniform. The reason she feels put down by the job is because of her age. She is clearly an older lady and if this were a photo of a teenager conclusions such as the one made above would not so easily be made.
Visual texts are a much deeper and more exploratory way of defining and understanding an issue, as mentioned above with the photos. However to quote Schirato and Yell;
“Visual mediums are sometimes privileged over other mediums because they seem to be able to represent reality in an unmediated way. Visual mediums, however, selectively reproduce, rather than faithfully mirror, reality.”
This conclusion may diminish the view of visual texts, but it also reinforces the requirements on cultural literacy to understand all works and come to conclusions on the validity of them. This is done through logical dissection of society and ones own knowledge, literacy and study of intertexts, for works visual or otherwise.
How do meanings change across cultures? Discuss referring to any two of the photographs below.
Meaning is “Something that one wishes to convey, especially by language” and it is this simple form of communication that can be so easily diluted and misinterpreted when a meaning is passed through various cultures. Culture is “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” From culture to culture different belief systems run, and therefore things can be taken and understood to mean different things to different people.
For example in photo ‘F’ where a women is seen in the seat of a car, presumably about to drive it, this may be seen in different cultures to mean a variety of things. In the strict Islamic culture of Saudi Arabia, women are expected to firstly wear a Hijab that covers them from head to toe, except for small slits for the eye. This image of would not be accepted in such a culture because it is clearly showing a women in what western culture would consider ‘normal clothing’. This point can also be made about photo ‘E’. Photograph ‘E’ also depicts a woman handling food in public with both the left and right hand. The significance of this is that “the left hand is used in lieu of toilet paper. If one attempts to use it for anything else, it is considered a personal affront.” This simple example shows how a seemingly innocent photo to western cultures could be perceived as offensive and disrespectful.
Another point relating directly to both images is that the women is by themselves and for Islamic culture women are expected to be accompanied by men when shopping and women are not allowed to drive at all in Saudi Arabia and therefore such a portrayal of a women in the drivers seat of a car would be misunderstood and ill appreciated in such a country.
Meanings are a very volatile aspect of communications and they are continually changing. A meaning can loose any respect and credibility as a culture changes and thus influence a variety of things. Meaning systems develop over time, and in the case of such religious meaning systems as the Islamic belief have, it can occur over thousands of years.
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