Dahlgren

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===Television and popular public spheres=== ===Television and popular public spheres===
In this riveting chapter, Dahlgren examines television in terms of its popularity and how it contributes to civic cultures and the public sphere. Dahlgren looks at how television both contributes to and hinders the ability of the public sphere to foster political engagement. The chapter looks at both the positive and negative effects television has had in terms of political engagement, and theorizes about what the future might hold for television and the public sphere in general. In this riveting chapter, Dahlgren examines television in terms of its popularity and how it contributes to civic cultures and the public sphere. Dahlgren looks at how television both contributes to and hinders the ability of the public sphere to foster political engagement. The chapter looks at both the positive and negative effects television has had in terms of political engagement, and theorizes about what the future might hold for television and the public sphere in general.
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==Chapter 7== ==Chapter 7==

Revision as of 13:20, 18 October 2011

Contents

Abstract

Chapter 1

Chapter Summary

Democracy in Difficult Times

Although always a key concern of scholars, Dahlgren argues that "citizen participation should not be seen simply as a failure of civic virtue"(p. 16). Furthermore, Dahlgren suggests that the structures in which western democracy relies upon (social, cultural, political, technological conditions) are most certainly in transition, and therefore new ways of embodying and expressing democratic values and principles is also a key concern (p.14)[1]

  • Elusive Engagement

Dahlgren wishes to take his stance between two arguments that come up again and again, regarding civic engagement. On the one hand, scholars are overly critical of citizens failure to take an interest in politics, sighting citizen disengagement as an epidemic to Western civilization (see Walter Lippmann, 1922). On the other end, scholars idealize the impact of civic engagement with unrealistic enthusiasm (see John Dewey, 1923).


  • Structural Snapshots
    • Disengagement for good and Bad reasons
      • Citizens vote for a representative to do much of the actual decision-making, perhaps limiting the degree to which one needs to be actively involved when the system is functioning
      • Lower class citizens may feel powerless because of continually existing social and economic inequalities
    • Winners and Losers
    • Uncivic Economism

According to Dahlgren, "Economism is understood as a reductionist mode of rationality whose definitive characteristic is to assert the priority of economic criteria over all other values or modes of reasoning"(p. 20)[2]

    • Global Democratic Progress in the long term?
  • Socio-cultural Turbulence
    • Cultural Dispersions
    • Individualization
    • The erosion of Traditional Institutions
    • The Emerging Network Character of Society
  • Civic Regeneration: Two Fronts

Further Reading

Carl Boggs article "The Great Retreat: Decline of the Public Sphere in Late 20th Century America"[3]

Facebook protest to Bill 126 Road Safety Act(2008), as Reported in the Toronto Star "McGuinty will reach out to young drivers on Facebook"[4]

Pippa Norris article "The Bridging and Bonding Role of Online Communities"[5]

Discussion Questions

  1. How are the people occupying Wall Street[1] an example of the 'Alternative politics' Dahlgren is referring to in Chapter 1's Civic Regeneration?
  2. Do civic demonstrations require some sort of physical gathering of people to instill democratic change?
  3. What about online civic demonstrations, what are some pros and cons to raising awareness within an online public sphere?

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  2. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  3. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/03042421/v26i0006/741_tgrdotpsilta
  4. ↑ http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/543011
  5. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1081180x/v07i0003/3_tbabrooc

Chapter 2

Article Summary

Dahlgren highlights specific changes in the media landscape that potentially alter the political landscape, and in turn, the potential for, and the quality of civic engagement. In addition, Dahlgren notes how these changes have affected journalism, and finally how the relationships between citizens, elites, and media have also become altered in the process.

The media are linked to democracy to the extent that media forms representations of political life. Politicians must depend on the media in order to gain public exposure, and "[p]olitical and economic elites make use of the media for the daily routines of governing, for opinion- and image-management, as well as for major initiatives or trouble-shooting in times of crises"[6]

  • Proliferation, Concentration, and Deregulation

An increase of media outlets (i.e. choice of media forms and genres) creates an overwhelming surrounding of choices, all competing for an individual's attention. Mega-corporations have continued to expand their ownership over a vast array of media outlet companies so that only few corporations are controlling media activities. Such capitalistic gain poses threats to Democracy, as media conglomerates are able to see that journalism does not speak against company interests. The presence of media conglomerates leads to deregulation, which is when the government policies end up better serving businesses, policy officials, etc. over what is most beneficial for citizens(35-38)[7].

  • Globalization

Dahlgren makes an interesting point about globalization's role in democracy. Specifically, Dahlgren insists that the positive sides of globalization should not be overlooked in its ability to bring to the forefront global frames of reference and social engagement, as well as the opportunity for public engagement in international issues (p.38). For instance, the recent string of protests happening globally, most notably the Egyptian Revolution [2], and recently the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration which has, within weeks, spread across areas of North America. Some people in Toronto are planning a demonstration in mid October entitled "Occupy Toronto Market Exchange"[3]

  • Digitalization

Dahlgren discusses digitization as a one of the major technological changes to western media. Particularly Dahlgren refers to Web 2.0 technology, which provides citizens with inexpensive media platforms that are easy to access, as well as an increase in the development of hand-held devices that connect citizens in new and various spaces (p. 39).

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  2. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  3. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/03042421/v26i0006/741_tgrdotpsilta
  4. ↑ http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/543011
  5. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1081180x/v07i0003/3_tbabrooc
  6. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  7. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)

Chapter 3: CITIZENS AND AGENCY

CITIZENS AND AGENCY

  • Citizenship: An Expansive Terrain
  • Becoming Citizens, Doing Citizenship
  • The Knowledge Problem:Opinion and Experts

Chapter 3 Summary

Dahlgren charts some key ideas from contemporary strands that will help to highlight and anchor the basic perspective of citizenship that he develops throughout the book. This perspective views citizenship not just as the formal, legal set of rights and obligations, but also treats it as a mode of social agency. Dahlgren interrogates the social construction of the concept of citizenship, in order to rethink and redefine the notions of citizenship and civic agency. Rather than understanding these as activities bounded solely by civic engagement in the public sphere, Dahlgren argues that both citizenship and civic agency are the products of mutually productive social and cultural processes.

Section 1:Citizenship: An Expansive Terrain

Addresses citizenship as a growing area of interest in research, discussing a number of developments that underscore the importance of its dimensions of agency and subjectivity.

  • In this section Dahlgren addresses the fact that the civic is a precondition for the political, in the sense that it situates us in the realm of the public. Civic Agency is used in this book then, as a fundamental notion to conceptually anchor people's enactment of citizenship. He argues that democratic rhetoric often encourages people to be civic - to engage in public matters and offer service- but notes that people are rarley encouraged to be political because politics tend to have a negative aura surrounding them. T.H Marshall and his discussion of the Three Dimensions of citizenship that have defined much of contemporary discussion: the civic, political, and social, are used as support for Dahlgrens claims in this section.
    • Further reading on Marshall's discussion of citizenship addressed throughout the chapter, in Citizenship and Social Class[8]
  • Dahlgren also highlights New directions for citizenship in this section of the chapter and lists factors like the modern world, universality,globalization and emerging notions of citizenship as important factors and realizing and redefining what it means to be a citizen in the modern world. Within this discussion he addresses the difference between State and Universalist understandings of citizenship. He highlights Stevenson's connection of citizenship and alterations in cultural patterns and the media and lists the three main theoretic traditions of citizenship throughout Political Theory literature as liberalism, communitarianism, and replublicanism
    • More detail on Stevenson's arguments:[9]

Section 2:Becoming Citizens, Doing Citizenship

Explores the idea of how people become citizens. In this section Dahlgren emphasizes the importance of prepolitical socio-cultural experience and the interactional character of participation.

  • Dahlgren emphasizes the etymological link between the notion of "civil society" and the concept of "civic", with its connections to publicness and the public good. He argues that civil society can be treated as the domain of the civic, the public sites of civic agency, where political participation has its origins. The political can only emerge in preexisting civic domain - what we call civil society. In this section Dahlgren explains that at the general level, civil society is seen by many writers as the societal terrain between the state and the economy, the realm of free association where citizens can interact to pursue their shared interests and argues that a healthy democracy needs a robust, public domain of associational interaction. He discusses several different diagnoses as to why civil society is not working as it should referencing:
    • Robert Putnam : Extended Argument [10]
    • Philip Agre: Extended Argument [11]
  • Dahlgren then uses the rest of the chapter to discuss the notion of Public Spheres as Interactional Practices. He bases this discussion of the public sphere around Habermas' traditional definitions, and uses Livingstone's discussions of the public and private aspects of the public sphere in order to redefine what the public sphere actually entails and emphasize the importance of illuminating the traditional borders that have seperated the "public and the private"
    • Habermas and the Public Sphere [12]
    • Livingstone: Audiences and Publics [13]
    • The Private Preparation of Public Spheres-Livingstone: Private/Public [14]

Section 3:The Knowledge Problem:Opinions and Experts

Section three discusses knowledge as a particular problem in terms of civic agency, focusing first on opinion processes and then on the dilemmas that go hand in hand with expert knowledge. Dahlgren highlights the importance of Public Opinion research and emphasizes the fact that civic Agency involves generating knowledge (and opinion) together. He discusses the processes of distribution of knowledge in society and argues that this distribution can never be "equal". He notes that these discrepancies of unequal knowledge distribution are due to an increasingly technologically advanced and highly specialized society. Dahlgren uses the final section of this chapter to highlight as well as emphasize the link between power and knowledge, as well as the need for increased civic awareness, education and civic counter knowledge.

    • Stephen Turner (2003): Dilemmas that expert knowledge pose for the functioning of Democracy

Literature Review

Discussion Questions

1. Should we rethink the notion of citizenship itself?

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  2. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  3. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/03042421/v26i0006/741_tgrdotpsilta
  4. ↑ http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/543011
  5. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1081180x/v07i0003/3_tbabrooc
  6. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  7. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  8. ↑ http://academic.udayton.edu/clarakim/inequality/articles/1-intro/Marshall--Citizenship%20and%20Social%20Class.pdf
  9. ↑ http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10687558&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
  10. ↑ http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10670/
  11. ↑ http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/republic.html
  12. ↑ http://www.wehavephotoshop.com/PHILOSOPHY%20NOW/PHILOSOPHY/Habermas/Structural.Transformation.of.the.Public.Sphere.-.Jurgen.Habermas.pdf
  13. ↑ http://journals2.scholarsportal.info/details-sfx.xqy?uri=/02673231/v23i0003/371_rslaapbib22p.xml
  14. ↑ http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=22713411&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Chapter 4 - Engagement, Deliberation & Performance

Chapter 4 Summary

  • Democracy, Engagement & Passion
  • Deliberative Democracy
  • Civic Agency as Agonistic Performance

Section 1: Democracy, Engagement & Passion

  • Engagement, Participation, Indifference
    • Dahlgren identifies that political engagement and participation are not synonyms and that the difference between the two terms can be valuable in understanding what it means to be an active citizen.[15]
      • Engagement is the focus energy placed on an individual task or ideal; a subjective state.
      • Participation is to have some degree of interest and engagement but lacks civic agency or empowerment.
    • Dahlgren believes the media plays a role in citizen involvement in politics. Dalhgren references Bennulf & Hedberg (1999) and their three attitudinal alternative as a method for involves not becoming as engaged in politics [16]
      • Distrust is a negative response or feeling towards the political system or a lack of empowerment through a clear disconnect before individual and government
      • Ambivalence is some degree of involvement, but the work is not work the reward, or vice versa. Dalhgren points to non-voting as the best method of ambivalence; a method to send a message [17]
      • Indifference is the political system is no more important than other industries (Music, Sports, Movies, etc.) and it can be seen as ironic; individuals who find ways to avoid voting though they have a clear and strong knowledge of the political system
  • Motivation: Politics and Passion
    • Dalhgren references Cheryl Hall and how she is able to break down the differentiating factors that go into the assumptions of passion and reason.[18]
      • Reason & Passion are intertwined within the psyche
      • Passion is not blind and can have a desire for good
      • Reason can be unguided and inaccurate
      • Apathetic citizens are absent of passion and thus lack participation according to Hall.

Section 2: Deliberative Democracy

  • Dalhgren identified Habermas' communicative rationality as a foundation of democracy and political participation. Deliberative democracy brings together communication with political theories. [19]
    • Follow basic public sphere model by Habermas
    • Believe by many to be only relevant in actual decision-making situations
    • Believe that deliberation should go beyond the actual decision-making process; beyond the strong public spheres
    • Believe to create mutual respect
  • Dahlgren beelives that three limitations are ever present with deliberative democracy: What kind of talk?, Unreasonable Rationality and Discursive Power.
  • What Kind of Talk?
    • Dalhgren references Schudson and how he views political discussion [20]
      • "conversation is not the soul of democracy"
      • Democracy is based on problem solving and not completely sociable
      • Conversation can tilt political discussion
    • Dalhgren references Noelle-Nuemann's spiral of silence as a theory relevant to awkwardness of politics discussion
      • People will shy away from something they either do not understand or that will make them feel isolated
  • Unreasonable Rationality
    • Dalhgren points to Mayhew and his belief that having a completely rational discussion with unbiased individual is goes against civic debates.
    • Believing everyone with be neutral undercuts passion
    • Can undermine democracy and deliberation
  • Discursive Power
    • Impossible to have all individuals on an equal playing field as deliberation hopes to achieve
    • Eliminates idea that discussion is a singular factor in political and social change
    • Collective action allows for a much more powerful avenue of change
  • Civic Talk
    • Collective action frames
      • Patterns of ideologies that can legitimize social movement engagement
    • Media attention leads to discussion which leads to better political awareness
    • Elisaoph did a study about individuals interaction in the public and provate sphere in regards to political talk
      • Private sphere (Back-stage) leads to more political discussion than Public Sphere (Front-Stage) due to comfort

Section 3: Civic Agency as Agonistic Performance

  • A chattering society is better suited for political discussion than tight lipped ones
  • Media reworks concept, ideas and ideologies to the general public
    • Belief is that people are unable to make unique and completely developed ideas due
  • Conflict is built into social interaction and change
  • Need to understand not all talk is political and falls in deliberative discussion
  • Not just face-to-face conversations but mediated ones

Literature Review

Non-voters either didn’t see point or were too busy on may 2, study finds from the Globe and Mail. [21]

Why no one wants an election [22]

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you agree that "conversation is not the soul of democracy"?
  2. Do any of the three issues (What kind of talk, Rationality or power) stand out more than any of the others?
  3. Do Eliasoph's findings surprise you?
  4. Indifference seems to be the area that seems to be the most relevant towards a lack of engagement. In relation to politics, do you agree that no-voting is best method because the effort is worth more than the motivation or is it our distrust on the political system?

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  2. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  3. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/03042421/v26i0006/741_tgrdotpsilta
  4. ↑ http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/543011
  5. ↑ http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1081180x/v07i0003/3_tbabrooc
  6. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  7. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  8. ↑ http://academic.udayton.edu/clarakim/inequality/articles/1-intro/Marshall--Citizenship%20and%20Social%20Class.pdf
  9. ↑ http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10687558&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
  10. ↑ http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10670/
  11. ↑ http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/republic.html
  12. ↑ http://www.wehavephotoshop.com/PHILOSOPHY%20NOW/PHILOSOPHY/Habermas/Structural.Transformation.of.the.Public.Sphere.-.Jurgen.Habermas.pdf
  13. ↑ http://journals2.scholarsportal.info/details-sfx.xqy?uri=/02673231/v23i0003/371_rslaapbib22p.xml
  14. ↑ http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=22713411&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
  15. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  16. ↑ http://ann.sagepub.com/content/628/1/85.abstract
  17. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  18. ↑ http://www.abebooks.com/Trouble-Passion-Cheryl-Hall-Taylor-Francis/1289732081/bd
  19. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  20. ↑ Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement. (Cambridge UP, New York)
  21. ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/non-voters-either-didnt-see-point-or-were-too-busy-on-may-2-study-finds/article2086982/
  22. ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-real-reason-no-one-wants-an-election/article1301959/

Chapter 5

Civic Cultures:An Analytic Frame

Summary

Dahlgren examines the factors that shape civic agency and how it impacts a citizen's overall engagement and participation in democracy.

Chapter 6

Television and popular public spheres

In this riveting chapter, Dahlgren examines television in terms of its popularity and how it contributes to civic cultures and the public sphere. Dahlgren looks at how television both contributes to and hinders the ability of the public sphere to foster political engagement. The chapter looks at both the positive and negative effects television has had in terms of political engagement, and theorizes about what the future might hold for television and the public sphere in general.

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

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