9 Decline of the National Public:

Commercialization, Fragmentation,
and Globalization

Introduction

What role does media play in the ability and enthusiasm of people to identity with and participate in their
society? Do they encourage us to engage in politics and culture or facilitate an “opting out” – into a
“fragmentized and globalized world of consumption”?

The focus of this chapter includes:

 Relationship between: Media, national culture, and democracy.
 Role of media in facilitating the “public sphere” (Jurgen Habermas)
 Ways in which media facilitate and construct national community + the implications of this for
belonging and engagement
 Impact of recent changes in the world of media on the distinctiveness and cohesion of national
soceities – and in turn, political + cultural participation [focus on: interative, fragmented, and
globalized media environment]

Media and the Public Sphere

Haberman’s Public Sphere

Jurgen Habermans (discussion about the role of media + citizenship + public sphere]; emerged from
Frankfurt school and a German theorist.

Human empancipation (being free from the control of politics, social, and legal restrictions) is dependent
on the ability of the people to participate in “onging rational communication” about
“matters of signifigance” to their society and future.

He believed: societies should collectively progress + improve on the basis of “public agreement reach as
a result of inclusive rational discussion”, free from the “corruption of money and power”.

There was a bourgeois public sphere in Europe; talk about important issues that influenced society in a
positive way? The primary setting in Europe was: coffee houses. Participants: educated, bourgeois
clientele of coffee houses.

Public sphere: a space for the development of shared culture and ideas, located between the “realm of
public authortity (government” and “the private realm of “civil society”. Which included commercial
relations and the “domestic sphere (Q: What is consider the domestic sphere, pg. 174)”.

Another important development to the process of [a public sphere? The discussions?] was the
development of a critical, politically oriented newspaper industry; which fed into + represented and
responded to the public discussion and opinion.

Although, this system was not inclusive, it offered a model for the idea that “private individuals might
come together to form a rational, participatory, public sphere and that the private interests of individuals
and commerce would be balanced with the “greater good”. Habermans thought that during this era, there
was a balance between: state, business, family, and the public sphere.

However: capitalism expanded, which lead to an expanding government control and drastic growth in the
power and reach of industry and commerce. “THE SYSTEM” are “steering mechanisms” of society;
dominated by “instamentalism” (a pragmatic philosophical approach that regards an activity (such as
science, law, or education) chiefly as an instrument or tool for some practical purpose, rather than in more
absolute or ideal terms, in particular.) that emphasized their own production and expansion. The gradual
SATURATION of the SYSTEM’s influence in everyday culture/LIFEWORD lef to instrumentalist,
pragmatic ways of thinking (dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on
practical rather than theoretical considerations)

Media and Public Engagement

Theorist who like the ideal of having a public sphere often focus on the role of media. They believe an
election is just the tip of the iceberg, and that nurturing an informal, open culture of micocultural
interaction where values, ideas, and opinions are constantly shared, exchanged, and debated. The
outcoems would then feed back into governments in an influential and onging manner.

These theorists are united in the belief that media and communications have a large role to play in the
development of and or surivial of such a public culture; the following examines why:

Stimulating and informing debate

The first role of media in the facilitation of the public sphere is the provision of a detailed and reliable
appraisal of events, ideas and discussions of public interest (not the ones of governments and other
powerful instututions); Media and a good public sphere therefore, should be trustworthy, rational, reliable,
honest, thorough, and accessible to the whole population. – Doesn’t need to regard all versions of the
world as equally valid or useful

Representing public opinion

Circular process of feeding and being fed by soceity’s onging conversation is necessary; an effective
public sphere will allow the development of discussion to influence powerful institutions; therefore, media
should be highly responsibe. Reflecting the developments in society rather than imposing elite agenda

Acting as an inclusive discussion forum

Media should act as forums for the diect expression of ideas, opinions, and information by members of
the population themselves (letters pages, phone-in shows, and comment facilities on news websites) –
although, in practice, they are often limited

Nurturing public belonging and community

The public sphere implies:
1. Participation in a broader public culture
2. The nurthring of a sense of cohesiveness, common identity, and belonging
The political functions of the public sphere can only be fufileld when people feel that they have a stake in
society and that their opinions are valued/engagement worthwhile

Nicholas Garnham: this implies the need to nurture some sort of common set of values; “it is impossible to
conveive of a viable democratic party without at the same time, some common dormative dimension”
Need: a fraternity; refer to the importance of brotherhood (national) characterized by strong bonds of
attachment and mutual obligation and responsibility.

The media has been known to have a key role in the development of a national identity (their long-
standing relationship)

Nation as “Imagined Community”

Cultural convention gives us notions of national belonging ,community and pride.
  Benedict Anderson: combination of mass printing and capitalism enabled mass distribution of
books across national territories, reating large-scale geographically distributed reading publics-
led to homogenization of language from locality to locality
Anderson’s: Imagined community – it is imagined because members of even the smallest nation will
never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in their minds of each
lives the image of the communion (sharing and exchange of thoughts)
 Provided shared national spaces that enable the imagining of broader publics (combination of
spectrium scarcity and regulation ensured only a limited number of channels and programmes
could be made available each day, sometimes in UK, broadcast simultaneously to whole country)
Importance of PSB in brining people together
 Provided shared experiences and agendas to connect people (TV, celebrate events) [Scannal]
argues continued nurturing of shared public culture is dependent on maintaining common media
experiences across the population
 Explicitly and repeatedly flagged our allegiance via reference to and representations of the
national “us” [Billing] regular reminders about their identity to audiences.

In 20th century; media operates in a CENTRIPETAL manner, drawing geographically and culturally
disparate people into shared spaces and to an extent, binding them together.

Public sphere is not here, although some may argue media may promote more political engagement; etc.
The role of media may relate to the inability of comemercialzied communcications systems to facilitate
democratic participation. –recent dilution of broader national community could be due to digitalization?

Decline of the Public Sphere

From facilitators to shapers
Media went from facilitators to shapers as larger buisnesses took over (with commercial motivation in
mind) Extensive control of media doesn’t assist the public sphere.

Commercially driven content

Another consequence of commercialism: emphasis on profitable content. Want to attract audiences and
advertising revenue. Emphasis on trivia, sensation, emotion, and personalization means the media
distracts from sophisticated critical reasoning, and promotes simplistic emotional responses.
Consumers are made to believe their purchasing decisions contributes to society; and Tracey connects
the trend of “the trivialization of public discourse, and evangelism of the ephemeral” , the celebration of
the insignificant, and the marginalization of the important” on the decline of PSB and deregulation in
general.

The circulation of ideas, cultures, and opinions have been largely a one-way process; media and the state
and other powerful institutions are involved n an onging dialogue with one another ,with the population
reduced to the role of onlookers. For others, the erosion of belonging to a society threatens to remove a
crucial basis for participation and cirizen engagement in that society.

Digital Dilution of the Nation

Fragmentation
Digitalization and deregulation seem liable to substantially decrease the amount of media experiences
that national populations share with one antoher. Technology has enabled a rapid shift woards a
multichannel age where television views select from hundreds of different channels. Focused on
“specialist groups”. For champions of national shared culture, such as Scannel, such division of the
national audience into different demographic or taste groups threatens the notion of a unified national
public.

There is also greater flexibility for when people choose to view their programs. Personal viewing devices
and online steaming durghut dissipation of the common media experiences that dominated in the past.
Centripetal social impact: binding members of society together
Centrifugal: facilitating social and cultural fragmentation; Tracey connects the pularlization of media with a
“retibalization” of society; “difference and diversity” may be “socially formed, but they are helped along
theway”. When offered an increased range of choicesl it is argued that people will pursue specialist or
individual interests and identities.

Globalization
Contemporary media also form an important role of “globalization” where national boundaries are
increasingly bypassed by international flows of culture. Globalization of capitalism, media.

Arjun Appadurai: contecpualizes the relationship between media, communication, and other elements in
the process of globalization via give overlapping global “scapes”
1. Financescapes: globalized commerce
2. Ethnoscapes: tourism/migration
3. Technoscapes:distribution of technologies
4. Ideoscapes:political ideas, images, and ideologies
5. Mediascapes: transnational distribution of media
These scapes are enabled by the global spread of the means to produe and receive media _ and rapid
transnational flows of content itself. Also, distribution of “successful narrative structures”

The Internet: Interactive but Fragmented

People can’t reach a large audience
What we say is currently being monitored
More fragmented, and has the option to ignore media they don’t want to see
People who seek certain information will only engage with “like-minded people” Instead of a single public
sphere, we end up with many little ones.

Conclusion: Public Sphere –Good Riddance?