Browsing by Subject "Public sphere"

Now showing 1 - 15 of 15

Amplifying a public's voice : online news readers' comments impact on journalism and its role as the new public space
(2011-05) Loke, Jaime 1979-; Harp, Dustin, 1968-
This dissertation is concerned with the impact online news readers comments have on the role of journalists and the implication it carries in shifting private sentiments onto a public space. Online news readers comments have recently grown in popularity and journalists across the United States are divided on how best to host this new public space. Drawing perspectives from new forms of journalism, sociological studies in race and gender, critical race and feminist studies, this dissertation focuses on a) the challenges of news organizations as hosts of this new public space and b) the racist and sexist discourse generated by audiences of certain online news stories. This dissertation employs a multi-method research design that combines a large scale survey of journalists in the United States, in-depth interviews with journalists, content analysis and a discourse analysis of online news readers comments from five selected news stories with strong race and/or gender elements in order to 1) gain journalists’ perspectives in this new electronic landscape and 2) examine the content of the comments that pose the most challenges to journalists in terms of hosting this space. The survey and interviews revealed how journalists are divided in wanting to serve their public by providing a space for dialogue but yet refusing to host hate. Faced with this challenge within the new electronic landscape, a majority of journalists are left on their own to determine how best to handle this new public space with hardly any guidance or support from news managers. The analysis of the comments showed that the articulations of race and gender in the discourse were not erratic expressions of a minority but instead repertories of racism and sexism that mirrored the string of findings from race and gender scholars. This dissertation finds that online news readers comments section have emerged as the space for unconstrained expressions to flourish without the constraints of political correctness and within the safe confines of anonymity.
Bourbon reform and buen gusto at Mexico City's Royal Theater
(2011-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, Ann
During the late eighteenth century, as part of a broader reform initiative commonly referred to as the “Bourbon reforms,” royal officials attempted to transform theatrical productions at Mexico City’s Real Coliseo (Royal Theater). Influenced by new intellectual trends in Spain, especially the neoclassical movement, reformers hoped that theater could serve as a school of virtue, rationality and good citizenship. This essay analyzes the theatrical reform effort, traces its foundations from sixteenth-century Spain to eighteenth-century Mexico, and seeks to explain why the initiative failed to transform either the Coliseo’s shows or its audience’s artistic predilections. It argues that the initiative was unsuccessful for three primary reasons. First, reformers did not have the power to compel impresarios and actors to obey their new regulations, and economic constraints sometimes forced officials to bend their strict aesthetic standards to appease the audience's largely baroque predilections. Second, Mexico City’s diverse and thriving public sphere made imposing a new popular culture profoundly difficult, especially given that reformers’ one-dimensional vision of neoclassicism failed to account for the variety and debate within this movement. Consequently, the theater added fuel to public debate over the definition of buen gusto (good taste), rather than merely instructing passive citizens as reformers had hoped. Finally, widespread public derision of the performing profession meant that many spectators did not take actors seriously as teachers of morality, taste and rationality. Actors’ reputation as immoral lowlifes, which derived in part from late-sixteenth century debates in Spain over morality and illusion in drama, complicated reformers' already difficult project of transforming the theater into a school of sociability and citizenship.
Enduring character : the problem with authenticity and the persistence of ethos
(2013-12) Dieter, Eric Matthew, 1976-; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-
This dissertation is interested in how people talk about character in a variety of public spheres. Specifically, it explores the tangled relationship between authenticity and ethos, or what is taken as the distinction between intrinsic and constructed character. While this dissertation does not presume to settle the question of authenticity’s actuality, it does discuss the ways authenticity cues in rhetorical acts continue to influence how “sincere character” in those acts is understood, even as audiences exhibit shrewdness in recognizing that character is a purposeful manifestation of the rhetor. The fundamental phenomenon this dissertation seeks to describe is how people, with better and worse success, negotiate the dissonance between valuing character as authentic and as presentation and representation. Character in this view is a much richer and more paradoxical concept than many discussions of the term admit. A too-diluted study of ethos limited strictly to pinpointing credibility in an argument makes it difficult to articulate why an exhibition of character sometimes works and sometimes flops. Ethos in its fullest complexity is, and is not, constructed by any single act; it is the consequence of narratives, both of those narratives, and also what we say about those narratives; it is something we know about a rhetor, at the same time that it comes from what the rhetor claims to know; it is, most important, an appeal to authenticity, even when we know ethos is discursively, kairotically, and socially constructed. This dissertation offers an expanded definition of ethos as rhetorical transactions that rhetors and audiences mutually negotiate in order to determine the extent to which all sides will have their rhetorical needs met, and the extent to which all sides can assent to the those needs. The dissertation, using the works of Wayne Booth, Kenneth Burke, and Chaïm Perelman as its primary theoretical structures, offers pedagogic implications for these mutual negotiations.
Flows of information/influence and diversity of content within online public fora in the context of civil society
(2012-12) Choi, Sujin; Strover, Sharon; Straubhaar, Joseph; Chen, Wenhong; Brundidge, Jennifer; Stroud, Natalie J.
Online public fora based on social media facilitate social interaction and synchronous online discussion. Social-media-based public fora resemble real-life political talks, and induce a larger number of and a wider variety of participants than blogs or Usenet newsgroups. By investigating two online groups centered on political discussions on Twitter, this study explores how information and influence flow, how diverse the actual discourse is, and to what extent the online groups communicate with the government. Using network analysis and content analysis/co-word analysis, this study has the findings as follows: In terms of the structural qualities, online public fora are relatively inclusive, but are centralized on a few participants and do not have a statistically significant indication of being equitable in discussion. The two-step flow of communication operates along with the presence of opinion leaders who turn out to be influentials but not content creators. Interestingly, the flow of influence is likely to be less centralized than the flow of information, which implies the importance of the reliability of a given message rather than that of the author. In terms of the actual discourse, participants turn to like-minded fellow citizens’ remarks. Discourses are more emotional than cognitive and exhibits more anger than anxiety. Influential discourses are those with negative emotion more so than with positive emotion and those that are cognitive rather than emotional. Among cognitive components, assertive and strong discourses have greater social influence than analytical discourses. In terms of the interaction with the e-government outlet, the distance between public authorities and private citizens is continuously present despite the decline of temporal and physical distance via the Internet. Based on the results, this study suggests a reconsideration of the Habermasian public sphere in online public fora. It contributes to the literature by empirically confirming the presence of the two-step flow of communication in online public fora and testing the difference between the flow of information and the flow of influence. In addition, it broadens the realm of research on political communication by exploring not only sources/ideological perspectives but also emotional/cognitive aspects in discussions. Methodologically, structure/context, multi-level, and quantitative/qualitative analyses allow this study to have a comprehensive account of online public fora. Practically, this study proposes to improve the interactivity with citizens as the next stage of e-government development.
From the polis to Facebook : social media and the development of a new Greek public sphere
(2018-05) Nevradakis, Michael; Strover, Sharon; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Kumar, Shanti; Miller, Mark Crispin
The objective of this research project is to critically examine how social and new media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online radio have influenced the potential development or rejuvenation of public sphere, civil society, and public discourse in Greece during the years of the country’s economic, political, and social crisis. The project attempts to answer how social and new media have impacted the public sphere and civil society, how social and new media have contributed to the formation of new political and social movements, how social and new media have contributed to the formation of alternative online news sources, and whether social and new media are considered to be more credible sources of news and information compared to mainstream media institutions. Greece was selected as the site for this research project in response to the prevailing view found in the body of academic literature that Greece’s public sphere and civil society have historically been underdeveloped when compared to the countries of Western Europe and the United States. In addition, the political and economic upheaval which accompanied the Greek economic crisis and the country’s location at the intersection of Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, presented intriguing possibilities for research and for examining the role that new technologies can play in the redevelopment of the public sphere and civil society during a time of crisis. Interviews were conducted with over 120 individuals, including elected officials and political personnel, journalists, media professionals, bloggers, academics, opinion leaders, activists, and representatives of organizations active within civil society. Five illustrative examples of organizations with a prominent social media presence, including a non-governmental organization, a political party, a mainstream media corporation, an online news portal, and an alternative online radio station were examined. Electronic survey research was also performed across three sample populations, including Greece’s representatives in the European Parliament, editors of major Greek newspapers, and representatives from organizations operating in the civil society sector. This dissertation is based on longitudinal, multi-year research performed in Greece between September 2012 and August 2017.
Gamergate, gender, and the virtual public sphere : exploring the online experience of female gamers
(2016-05-03) Figueroa, Ever Josue; Bock, Mary Angela; Jensen, Robert
The Gamergate episodes on Twitter in 2014 revealed the challenges that women face when engaging in public discourse in the video game community. Women are harassed and attacked for expressing personal views that challenge patriarchy within the context of these virtual social groups. The backlash that women receive when speaking online raises an important questions that academic scholarship needs to address. What do women experience when participating in predominantly masculine communities, and how does this help us understand patriarchy in the public the sphere? This study used a critical cultural approach to textual analysis and focus group research as a methodology for researching female gaming experience. A discourse analysis of tweets on Twitter during two key moments of the Gamergate episodes was conducted. The findings from the discourse analysis were used to inform a series of questions for focus group research with female gamers. The findings of these two studies show that discourse on Twitter reflects and reproduces patriarchy, and this sexist online discourse has an impact on female gamer's experience with online engagement. The findings show that women who join virtual networks must overcome barriers to discourse that are placed on them by men. Women who do participate in public discourse within these communities tend to fragment their femininity by emphasize stereotypically masculine. The findings suggest that patriarchy positions women as outsiders to the video game community, and that female participation in this community is seen as an invasion of a private sphere. In order for online forums to be a true platform for public discourse, women have to be allowed to join online conversations without sacrificing their femininity.
'A haven for tortured souls' : Hong Kong in the Vietnam War
(2011-12) Hamilton, Peter Evan; Lawrence, Mark Atwood
This essay details the profound economic and social impact of the Vietnam War on Hong Kong. The British colony provided essential strategic facilities to the U.S. war effort and ranked among the largest destinations for American servicemen on R&R. Between 1965 and 1970, Hong Kong annually hosted about 200,000 U.S. ground and naval personnel on holiday. This influx annually earned Hong Kong about US$300-400 million (in 2009 dollars) and employed thousands of residents working in the colony’s service and entertainment industries. In addition, American servicemen and the local businesses catering to them became a contentious issue in local society. Servicemen excited widespread interest, but their misdeeds and their bar and brothel stomping grounds provoked intense anxiety. Hong Kong residents’ ensuing debates exercised the available civil channels and stimulated the colony’s emerging public sphere, from English- and Chinese-language newspaper battles to outspoken unions and neighborhood associations. In tandem with famed events such as the Star Ferry Riots of 1966 and the communist agitations of 1967, American R&R was an essential ingredient to the emergence of a distinctive Hong Kong identity and citizenry during this period. While residents’ objections failed to curb the GIs’ holidays, Vietnam tourism and its reverberating effects pressed new sectors of Hong Kong residents to grasp and articulate their investment as citizens in the city’s future. Thus, the Vietnam War and its U.S. presence in Hong Kong were major factors in developing Hong Kong’s modern economy, civil society, and contemporary self-conception as a political, legal, and cultural ‘haven.’
Horizontal rights : constitutionalism and the transformation of the private sphere
(2019-07-12) Bambrick, Christina Rose; Jacobsohn, Gary J., 1946-; Brinks, Daniel; Ferreres, Victor; Tulis, Jeffrey K
Though jurists have traditionally understood the constitution as a separate kind of law that obligates only the state, courts increasingly understand constitutions as creating obligations for private actors such as private individuals, businesses, schools, and hospitals. The practice of applying rights “horizontally” to private actors raises a range of questions from the theoretical to the practical and from the jurisprudential to the political. I argue that we better understand the practical and political implications of such “horizontal rights” by studying them through the lens of republican political theory. Specifically, republicanism grounds (and foregrounds) the solidarity between citizens and the uniformity between public and private spheres that horizontality ascertains. Applying this framework, I examine constitutional debates, court cases, and political histories to show how courts have applied rights horizontally across time, place, and subject-matter. By situating my study in the larger historical-political context of each place, I examine the conditions that surround the horizontal application of constitutional rights to individual citizens and other private actors. Chapter I lays out this theoretical grounding, drawing on classical and neo-republican theory to demonstrate the explanatory power of this framework. In the next two chapters, I examine the development of horizontal rights in national contexts, contrasting efforts to bring solidarity to the private sphere in India and the United States (Chapter II), and comparing attempts to establish uniform standards to govern public and private spheres in Germany and South Africa (Chapter III). Chapter IV extends this discussion to the European Union, considering how the republican framework for horizontal effect accounts for duties and standards occurring across national boundaries. In accounting for the practical power of courts to determine the rights and duties of private entities, this project contributes to our knowledge of how constitutional politics shape conceptions of public and private in our increasingly pluralistic world. This research engages and contributes to law and courts scholarship in political science. However, its findings will be of interest to all scholars interested the relationship between the state and civil society.
Inclusivity and the (un)civil paradox : critiquing and needing civility in the public sphere
(2016-09-29) Hatch, Justin Dean; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-; Longaker, Mark
Scholars have turned toward Deliberative Democracy in recent decades in part because of its potential for including more voices in decision making processes that affect an increasingly diverse polity. Inherent in Deliberative Democracy’s models, though, are what can be understood as prescriptions of certain types of civility, as consensus is posited as only happening under particular circumstances. Valuing radical inclusion, this study investigates historical negative effects of civility policing before exploring a more agonistic approach’s potential for the inclusion of all voices, especially those previously marginalized.
Los muros nos hablan : graffiti in Valparaíso, Chile
(2011-12) Beaver, Amethyst Rey; Giunta, Andrea; Cárcamo-Huechante, Luis
The city of Valparaiso is an incredibly complex city with multiple actors each with a different cultural agenda. Compounded by the unclear laws and politics surrounding the 2003 UNESCO world heritage designation, it is an urban center brimming with tension. Within this space, graffiti articulates an unmediated, anti-hegemonic voice within the public sphere. The tactics and strategies used to disseminate this cultural expression have allowed graffiti to find a tenuous, if ever present existence in the city. Paradoxically, as the individual authors tactically and strategically align to produce a forceful graffiti movement, they have also put themselves and their graffiti in a position where it can be usurped and used for the purposes of promoting Valparaiso as a hip, bohemian site of authentic, consumable culture. Graffiti can be read as a written signal of disaccord, yet its move into the codified gallery spaces of Chilean government re-inscribe graffiti within a historical cannon determined by cultural and government authorities. By exploring graffiti in São Paulo as a parallel to graffiti in Valparaiso and the Expo Graffiti Porteño, I problematize the practice of delineating graffiti into categories of art verses vandalism. This division is polemical and divisive and obscures the significance of all and any graffiti within the public sphere. Ultimately, this project seeks to examine graffiti’s marginal position and the consequences of its acceptance by institutions that confer artistic or cultural legitimacy.
Public memory and political history : news media and collective memory construction after the deaths of former presidents
(2014-05) Patterson, Jeffery Randolph; Johnson, Thomas J., 1960-
In recent years, scholars have shown increasing interest in the concept of collective memory for structuring modern social understanding and political dialogue. However, surprisingly few studies have looked at the role that news media play the processes of collective political memory construction, reinterpretation, and change. This study contributes to the literature on collective memory construction, by helping clarify the means by which different news media serve as a site where collective memory is constructed, reinforced, and revised; and, 2) to identify which political actors and institutions act as sources to assert particular memory frames and what media subsidies they offer to influence the memory construction process. Specifically, the study undertook a two-stage longitudinal content analysis of news media to discern the ways former U.S. presidents (i.e., Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Ford) were memorialized in news media coverage at the time of their funerals, and then again in subsequent news media stories through 2012. The content analysis identified dominant news media frames and secondary attribute sub-frames as applied to former U.S. Presidents, and which news media sources and frame advocates are engaged in setting those frames. As a result, the study identified patterns of change and resilience in particular presidential memory frames as represented in news media, and found journalists—beyond other sources and frame advocates—play a significant role in both creating and revising those memories over time. A range of opportunities for further research are discussed.
Recording the movement : the role of citizen-generated videos in perceptions of police and police use of deadly force
(2018-05) Tipton, Kiana; Watkins, S. Craig (Samuel Craig)
Since the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014, there has been widespread mobilization of activist groups and individuals both online and on the ground, to address issues of police brutality, racial bias, and equity within the criminal justice system. The emergence of citizen-generated videos as well as the democratization of internet access has enabled marginalized groups often targeted by law enforcement to have a voice in new and meaningful ways. More specifically, citizen-generated videos of police brutality and the different avenues they are disseminated across have been able to challenge mainstream narratives of police-citizen encounters. Through a critical technocultural discourse analysis of comments surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown, Philando Castile, and Dajerria Becton, I will code for racialized and gendered understandings of the cases and perceptions of police. Further, I utilize Jackson and Welles notion of counter-publics and Castells development of ‘mass self-communication’ to uncover what elements of technology contributed to self-efficacy and activism, which lead to these cases becoming national news stories. I argue that there is something uniquely impactful about the visceral nature of citizen-generated videos of police brutality, which has lead to a pervasive push for transparency within police departments and their interactions with the Black community. As a result, the public discourse surrounding police brutality has heightened, and the public's perceptions of law enforcement is shifting.
A rhetoric of instrumentality : documentary film in the landscape of public memory
(2012-12) Ross, Leah Michelle; Brummett, Barry, 1951-; Arens, Katherine, 1953-
We are at a particular moment in history where new technologies are changing the way films are made, distributed, and screened, as well as how audiences interact with documentary texts and discourses. This dissertation project questions documentary's instrumentality in the public sphere in two parts. Using the response to Ken Burns' The War, as a point of departure, it first addresses the lacuna of theory and scholarship on documentary films, owed largely to its nascent arrival in academia as a dedicated field of study. Using the films and the public response around the films, I point out the problems with how documentary has been understood in both public and academic thought, with particular emphasis on truth claims, subjectivity narratives, and audience identification, as well as production techniques as rhetoric. Secondly the project takes two cases studies to examine these issues in documentary discourse and to exemplify the ways technology is changing documentary as we know it, one a reality television show focused on teenage mothers and the other Michael Moore's well known film Fahrenheit 9/11. Ultimately I argue that we are in a new era of documentary production that may be characterized by its interactivity between films, publics, and discourses. It is my hope that by combining my practical knowledge of documentary production for film and television with academic scholarship I will provide a valuable text for documentary theorists and rhetoricians alike.
Selling feminism : a study of contemporary feminist literatures, communities, and markets
(2010-05) Hurt, Erin Allison; Perez, Domino Renee, 1967-; Cvetkovich, Ann, 1957-; Bremen, Brian; Richardson, Matt; Cloud, Dana
This dissertation explores how recent feminist authors uses their literature to create, sustain, and expand the feminist movement through their creation of communities and readerships. This project consists of four case studies, each of which examines how a feminist author represents feminist identity, where she locates herself in relation to the mainstream marketplace, which strategies she uses to circulate her representation, and what forms of small and large feminist communities she is able to create. To develop this analysis of feminist literary public culture, I focus on playwright Eve Ensler and her work with the V-Day movement, novelist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and her expansion of the chick lit genre, poet Lorna Dee Cervantes and her online small press, and the members of spoken word group Sister Spit and their traveling road show. These individual case studies, taken as a whole, speak to the ways that feminist authors are engaging mainstream and feminist readers in ways that create and energize feminist communities.
Vitriolic voices : political candidates and the incivility gender gap online
(2015-05) Cardona, Arielle M.; Stroud, Natalie Jomini; Jarvis, Sharon E
The advent and diffusion of many Internet technologies have inspired the possibility of a new, Habermasian, online public sphere. Social networking sites are one of these potential spaces -- the free and open communication among users allows for a generally unmediated message flow that could help to foster ideal deliberative discussion. Of particular concern for the reality of such a space, however, is the troubling amount of incivility online, especially toward groups traditionally disenfranchised in the public sphere such as women. Although scholars have looked at the presence of incivility within comment sections, scant research has studied incivility on social networking websites, whether political context affects the presence of incivility, or how incivility differs by gender. This thesis applies a content analysis of Twitter @-replies toward male and female gubernatorial and Senate candidates to understand not only differences in the amount of incivility, but the context of such communication. The findings suggest that women receive more uncivil communication than men. Even when controlling for various campaign characteristics, Democratic women are more likely than Republican women to receive uncivil replies, and male authors are more likely than female authors be uncivil online. The online public sphere appears to present a new set of challenges for female candidates, and gender must continue to remain a variable in studies moving forward.