Peter Dahlgren

The Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation

The theme of the Internet and the public sphere now has a permanent place on research agendas and in intellectual inquiry; it is entering the mainstream of political communication studies. The first part of this presentation briefly pulls together key elements in the public sphere perspective, underscoring three main analytic dimensions: the structural, the representational, and the interactional. Then the discussion addresses some central themes in the current difficulties facing democracy, refracted through the lens of the public sphere perspective. In particular, the destabilization of political communication systems is seen as a context for understanding the role of the Internet: It enters into, as well as contributes to, this destabilization. At the same time, the notion of destabilization can also embody a positive sense, pointing to dispersions of older patterns that may have outlived their utility. Further, the discussion takes up obvious positive consequences that follow from the Internet, for example that it extends and pluralizes the public sphere in a number of ways. Thereafter the focus moves on to the interactional dimension of the public sphere, specifically in regard to recent research on how deliberation proceeds in the online public sphere in the contemporary environment of political communication. Finally, the analytic category of deliberative democracy is critically examined; while useful, some of its rationalist biases, particularly in the context of extra–parliamentarian politics, limit its utility. It is suggested that the concept of civic cultures offers an alternative way to understand the significance of online political discussion.

Doing citizenship The cultural origins of civic agency in the public sphere

The notion of civic agency gains relevance in the discussions about declining participation in democracy. This article argues that we need to take a ‘cultural turn’ in our understanding of such agency, seeing citizenship not just in formal terms but also in regard to meaning, practices, communication and identities. It pulls together various strands of thought that are helpful in conceptualizing civic agency, first from the republican conception of democracy, and then from perspectives on civil society. Thereafter it focuses on public spheres and the civic competencies associated with them, particularly the communicative variety. Finally, it critically addresses the notion of deliberative democracy, a concept that has come to signal the mode of communicative interaction of the public sphere, and suggests that this view of civic communication ignores a number of important issues in regard to the cultural aspects of civic competence.

The Internet and the Democratization of Civic Culture

The starting point for my reflections here is a schematic distinction within a democracy between the formal political system, with its institutional structures, laws, parties, elections, etc., and a complex, multidimensional civic culture, anchored in everyday life and its horizons. Civic culture both reflects and makes possible this democratic system, while at the same time it is dependent upon the system for its institutional guarantees and parameters. In Habermasian terms, this notion of civic culture can thus be seen as an important region of the life-world, with its negotiation of norms and values. As such, it is certainly vulnerable to colonization from the system of politics and, yet can potentially also impact on the norms and values that guide those spheres. The political system (but to a lesser degree the economic system) and a civic culture are in principle mutually dependent; both evolve in relation to each other. A civic culture is thus both strong and vulnerable: it generates the normative and cultural resources required for a functioning democracy, yet it sits precariously in the face of political and economic power. It can be shaped by citizens, but can also shape them, since various ‘technologies of citizenship’, as Cruishank (1999) calls them, such as government and education – and I would add the media – can serve to empower or disempower citizens via the civic culture.

Communication and citizenship : journalism and the public sphere

This book addresses a question which is central to academic and journalistic debate - to what extent are the media in modern societies able to help citizens learn about the world, debate their responses to it and reach informed decisions about what courses of action to adopt? Can the media play a role in the formation of public opinion at a time when public service broadcasting is under attack and the popular press panders to market forces with an output of celebrity gossip and sensationalized reporting? Each contributor to this collection of essays concentrates on one aspect of the role and future of public opinion in the United States and Europe. Topics under discussion include American politics and television news, feminist perspectives on the public sphere, the Polish media after Stalinism and the popular press and television in the United Kingdom. This book is intended to be of interest to advanced students in communication and media studies.

Civic identity and net activism: the frame of radical democracy

Radical Democracy and the Internet provides a systematic and mutual interrogation of radical democratic theory and Internet practice. Contributors critically examine a range of radical democratic theories in relation to online communication, from deliberative to agonistic to autonomist Marxist, and explore how such communication may be advancing democracy beyond what is conceptualized and practised within present liberal-capitalist political contexts. The result is an important contribution to both democratic theory and new media studies, and essential reading in politics, media studies, communications, and sociology.

From Public Sphere to Civic Culture: Young Citizens’ Internet Use

During the last decade or so, basically ever since access to the internet reached a high proportion of people all over the western world, its ability to revitalize the public sphere has been discussed. Within the discussion, utopian as well as less hopeful future visions have been heard. On the one hand, authors have aired and identified new hope for the public sphere on the internet (cf. Malina, 1999; Slater, 2003); on the other hand, sceptical analyses have concluded that the internet is just another extension of corporate powers (McChesney, 1999), or a device selling back to people the ability to interact, an opportunity that one-way media such as radio and television have stolen from them (Holmes, 1997).

In search of the talkative public: Media, deliberative democracy and civic culture

Abstract Theories of democracy consider communicative interaction among citizens central. In recent years the idea of deliberative democracy has galvanised elements of political theory with perspectives on communication. This concept emerges to a large extent from the Habermasian trajectory and links currents from theories of civil society and citizenship. It has thus a rather forceful normative dimension. However, there are difficulties; and the aim of the article is to probe the notion of deliberative democracy by framing it in ways that may render it more useful for both theoretical and empirical work. The article begins with a quick interpretation of the theoretical background. From there the author discusses some current issues of conceptualisation, in particular if such talk should be seen as a part of everyday conversation or a special mode of interaction. These definitional issues set the stage for an examination of two recent empirical contributions. In the final section, the article attempts to situate deli- berative democracy within an analytic framework of civic culture. Deliberative democracy, or more simply, discussion, becomes one of six dimensions of civic culture.

Young Citizens and Political Participation Online Media and Civic Cultures

The first part of this essay focuses on the theme of civic engagement, set against the dilemmas of democracy confronting the West. It examines the role of the digital media in this regard, while at the same time trying to illuminate the challenges in broader socio-cultural terms. Specifically, it underscores that the Web environment constitutes a key social site, especially for young people in late modernity, and that the contingencies of its use and the potential it offers have significance for the character of democracy. The second part of the essay offers an analytical framework for examining civic cultures. Civic cultures can support democratic agency and are shaped by a variety of factors. The media, however, are of particular importance here. The framework is modeled as a circuit with six mutually reciprocal dimensions, each opening up an avenue of possible empirical research.

Waves of media democratization A brief history of contemporary participatory practices in the media sphere

The article aims to provide a more historically grounded approach to the relationship between communication and participation, by distinguishing different waves of media democratization. The article first discusses the concept of participation and some of its complexities, and then sketches a series of intense moments of participation in and through the media in (mainly the second half) the 20th and the 21st century. At the same time, care is taken not to organize a linear-historical narrative, keeping in mind that the history of the democratization of Western societies and their media spheres is characterized by a series of continuities and discontinuities, dead ends and sedimented practices. Despite these ever-present fluctuations, the article argues that we can still see that structures, cultural resources and subjective dispositions have over time been geared more towards participation and equality, also within the media sphere.

Populism, extremism and media : Mapping an uncertain terrain

Aiming to critically review key research on populism, extremism and media, this article examines some definition aspects of populism as a concept, its relation to ‘the people’ and points to future directions for research in mainstream – and social media – the terrain where so much of the political is played out. An individualisation of civic cultures has emerged in tandem with the growth of mediated populism through the use of new technologies, with a tendency towards personalisation in the public domain. While the new technological affordances exemplified by Web 2.0 may have contributed to intensified forms of popular engagement, they have been less successful in promoting democratic values, as shown by the results of the May 2014 European Parliamentary elections. Thus, the question as to the type of publics that are ‘possible and desirable in present circumstances’ (Nolan, 2008: 747) remains valid, for publics can espouse anti-democratic values while nevertheless remaining ‘publics’. The fact that the link between the new media and right-wing extremism has been comparatively explored at greater length than that of a religious bend indicates the need to invest in the latter, especially due to home-bred Islamic terrorism increasingly seen as threatening the multiculturalism of various European societies. Several avenues for research are presented to this effect, with a final reflection on the challenge posed by new media to the concept of media populism, both in terms of the Net’s market logics and the specificity of its architecture.