Public Sphere Lecture

What is it?

  • “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens.'“ “the expression ‘pubic opinion’ refers to the tasks of criticism and control which a public body of citizens informally - and, in periodic elections, formally as well”

    (Habermas, 1974: 49)

    • the public sphere is where citizens come together, exchange opinions regarding public affairs, discuss, deliberate, and eventually form public opinion.

    • ‘fewer concepts have greater relevance to contemporary media studies than Habermas’ notion of the public sphere.’ (Howley, 2007: 300)

Habermas and the PS

  • C18 coffeehouse: bourgeois public sphere as a model for the democratic PS:

    • participation

    • communicative rationality

    • independent of church and state

    • public opinion

  • Problems:

    • Romanticises an exclusive elite: white, male, propertied.

    • ‘the exclusion of women was constitutive of the very notion of the public sphere’ (Thompson, 1995: 254)

    • ‘far from championing an easily accessible coffeehouse society, aimed to rein in and discipline these practices’ (Cowan, 2004: 346)

    • overlooks radical working-class press

    • overly pessimistic about the rise of mass media. ‘some media, some of the time do still serve as a forum for discussion of issues of public interest’ (Boyd-Barrett, 1995; 230)

Scannell, the media, and the PS

  • challenges dominant approach in media studies which sees the media as a form of ideological/social control

  • ‘broadcasting in its present form [is] a public good that has unobtrusively contributed to the democratization of everyday life, in public and private contexts, from its beginning through to today’ (Scannell, 1989: 136)

Counter-public spheres

  • ‘subaltern counterpublics’:

    • ‘alternative discursive realms for purposes of promoting group solidarity and challenging social, political and economic relations of dominance and subordination’ (Howley, 2007: 300)

  • Problems:

    • Don’t go unchallenged. E.g. Mary Whitehouse’s prosecution of Gay News 1976 and WH Smith’s refusal to stock/supply it.

Second Wave Feminism

  • Spare Rib (1972-1993)

  • Virago Press (1973-)

  • Silver Moon bookshop, London (1984-2004)

  • ‘the significance of the printed word to the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s can hardly be overstated: Marsha Rowe recalled that “suddenly words were possible” (Foster, 2016)

Gay Liberation

  • Gay News

  • Gay’s the Word bookshop, London

  • ‘through publications such as Gay News, readers in Southampton or Huddersfield could for the first time play an active part in the same debates as men in Earls Court or Soho’ (Smith, 1014: 22)

Black British Community

  • The Voice

  • ‘gave Black Britain a megaphone [and] tapped into a generation figuring out what it meant to be Black and British’ (Ziady, 2020)

The Digital PS

Conclusion

  • The concept of PS remains important in media studies.

  • Habermas’ work is central to this but has been widely applied and critiqued