Javnost - The Public, Vol. 26 - 2019, No. 3
Integrating Concepts of Counterpublics into Generalised Public Sphere Frameworks: Contemporary Transformations in Radical Forms
Public sphere theory has come to an epistemic crossroads. The rise of right-wing movements in Europe and the U.S., for example, pose a challenge to public sphere theorists. This holds especially true since they make use of social media to articulate their messages, network, recruit, dissent or attack. In this conceptual paper we suggest a functionalist approach that integrates the concept of counterpublics within the public sphere based on the two generalised functions agenda-setting and identity formation. We describe how counterpublics may become regular publics, but also emphasise on how strong collective identities may lead to a vicious cycle of extremism. Based on the examples of the far-right Stormfront forum and the Generation Identity, the concept of the vicious cycle of extremism is being proposed to highlight the internet’s role in the formation and radicalisation of counterpublics.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article
From Competing Institutional Logics to the Action Horizons of Mediatised Political Performance: A New Approach to the Relationship between Media and Political Action
This article introduces a new approach aimed at capturing three essential action horizons of mediatised political action. The proposed approach focuses on how institutional, discursive and argumentative horizons come together to form a historically specific and issue-dependent publicity that influences how political actors communicate their power and aims. We argue that by studying the interplay of these three horizons in different times and contexts, we can better understand the media’s changing role in politics than by focusing only on the alleged characteristics of media logic (e.g. personalisation and negativism), often proposed in the debates about mediatisation and media interventionism.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article
Toward Fair, Accountable, and Transparent Algorithms: Case Studies on Algorithm Initiatives in Korea and China
Algorithms are playing an increasingly huge role becoming a big part of human lives. With the conceptualisation of algorithms as a socio-technical system, this study investigates algorithm initiatives in Korea and China in terms of the opportunities, risks, and challenges embedded in their development. This study analyses algorithm development and trends from a critical socio-technical lens: social, technological, cultural, and industrial phenomena that represent strategic interactions involving people, technology, and society and elicit sensitive legal, cultural, and ethical rhetoric issues. Despite rosy predictions and proactive drives, new risks related to privacy, transparency, and fairness emerge as critical concerns of the social ramifications of algorithms and of their impacts on the new information milieu. With these emerging issues, questions are raised on the ways to govern algorithms and to respond to potential outcomes that such a policy approach may have on society and industry. Both Korea and China will likely struggle with the social cost of AI as it challenges what it means to be fair, transparent, and accountable. The socio-political implications of algorithms are discussed to identify key issues as both countries progress toward an algorithm-based, AI-driven society.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article
Public Service Media in Europe: Exploring the Relationship between Funding and Audience Performance
Public service media (PSM) are confronted with a continuing debate about public remits, performance, efficiency, and the public value of its offerings, and in many countries, public service organisations are put under pressure by political initiatives that question and oppose the traditional public funding models. This paper contributes to the debate about funding models and the assessment of public service media by exploring the relationship between funding (input) and audience performance (impact). Results of a comparative analysis of 17 European countries indicate that funding of PSM affects its audience performance. Broadcasters with stronger public income achieve higher market shares, stronger relevance as an information source, and greater trust in independence from external constraints. The findings underline the sensitivities around political reforms that aim at changes of PSM funding models. On the basis of the empirical analysis, the authors argue that substantial budget cuts or the abolition of public funding will probably lead to declines in audience performance—and a loss of relevance of public service media.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article
Bonded by Interactions: Polarising Factors and Integrative Capacities of the News Media in Hungary
The article addresses the issue of political polarisation in the news media in Hungary. Hungary is an illustrative case of a country which has been studied as the example of high political parallelism in news media, and one of the most politically polarised societies in Europe. We contribute to the literature in a number of ways. First, to our knowledge, this is a pioneering study in the application of network analysis to measuring political polarisation in the news media. Second, we provide evidence that fragmentation and heavy partisanship do not necessarily lead to extreme polarisation. The study presents an issue-centred and context-based approach to assessing whether mass communication channels form integrated or divided news media spaces for public discussion. For an empirical test, we explore the news media networks of three of the most widely covered issues of 2014. To link a medium to another one, we concentrate on interactions, which are defined as explicit citations or hyperlinks to the content of other media products and the communication of politicians. The findings support the claim of moderate polarisation in the Hungarian news media. Although ideologically divergent blocs are detected, there are intensive interactions between news media outlets of different political colours.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article
Of Nation and People: The Discursive Logic of Nationalist Populism
The present article develops a theory of “nationalist populism” by examining the relationship between populism and the hegemonic configuration of nation-states. Following recent contributions by the “Essex School,” populism is understood as a process whereby diverse political demands and identities come to be aggregated via signifiers, typically that of “the people,” that incarnate an antagonistic populist body. I argue that the rhetorical construction of “the people,” to the extent that it is executed in the context of national hegemonic blocs, will often (inadvertently) come to be overdetermined by uncontested nationalist narratives and life modalities that are symbolically associated with the hegemonic signifier “the nation.” Nationalist populism can therefore best be understood as a chimeric political logic, whereby a populist totality is parasitically signified vis-à-vis the hegemonic signifier “the nation” and its associated family resemblances. This logic can assume a variety of forms, its content being dependent upon contextual political and ideological considerations.
Full text (available at Taylor & Francis)
|
Export Reference
|
Link to this article