Twitter & the Public Sphere

@atiface, @hwright625, & @madisunny

What is the Public Sphere? Platform for rational discourse in which a

public opinion can be formed in a democratizing manner

Is Twitter a public sphere?

Virtual sphere should enhance democracy, but does it?

Access, Reciprocity, and Commercialization prohibit the creation of a virtual sphere

Space vs. Sphere

Greater access to new media doesn’t guarantee increased participation online

This information is still dominated by the elites, which results in the “haves” and “have-nots” of the Internet, despite its globality

Case study: Egypt◦ "There's 80 million people in Egypt, and almost 40 percent

are below the poverty line. Cell phone penetration is incredibly high, but the majority of the cell phones are not smartphones. A lot of the information that was getting out was from a very small critical mass of people that were able to tweet out of Egypt. Friends of mine in Cairo estimate that it's less than 200 people who were tweeting from Cairo."

Access

http://egypt.hypercities.com/

In order for online interactions to be democratized, it must be reciprocal (“two-directional”, “shared interest”, “focused discourse”, pg. 235)

Reciprocity ensures a connection between both parties involved, as well as a level playing field

Because a majority of interactions on social sites such as Twitter are not reciprocal, we can’t consider them democratizing the virtual sphere◦ How brands and marketers have infiltrated the site, though

they may not be tailored to our interests◦ Again, looking at Egypt: if conversations are reciprocal, it

can “truly help connect citizens of democracies” instead of producing “fragmented spheres of conversation” (235).

Reciprocity

Relates to Adorno’s idea of the culture industry: “As a medium constructed within a capitalist context, the internet is susceptible to the profit-making impulses of the market, which do not traditionally prioritize civic participation or democratization” (236).

Commercialized interests turn spherespace

Commercialization

While we’d like to think that Twitter is purely democratic in nature, commercialization has crept into the Twitter world and clouded this notion. In the Twitter world, Charlie Sheen is indeed #winning…

https://twitter.com/#!/CNN https://twitter.com/#!/charliesheen

Civic Narcissism Post industrialization has ratified a transition from

existential to self-expression values.(237) Goes along with what Adorno’s belief of individuality

as a commodity “Narcissism here is employed to understand the

introspection and self-absorption that takes place in blogs and similar spaces, and to place these tendencies in historical contexts”(237)

“blogs… typically regress to self-confessional posts that resemble diaries, with few exceptions that engage in journalistically informed punditry”(237)

Can Twitter stir up a dialogue despite the fact that it is simply self-confessional posts?

Civic Narcissism Part 2 “Political thoughts expressed on blogs are narcissistically

motivated in that they are not created with the explicit purpose of contributing to a public sphere, the commons, or heightening civic engagement”(238)

“Ironically, narcissistic behavior is motivated by the desire to connect the self to society”(238)

“The subjective focus of blogs and similar forums encourages plurality of voices and expands the public agenda”(238)

“With their focus making a private agenda public, blogs challenge the established public agenda in an anarchaic manner”(238)

What happens to the generalizable interests and what sort of compromise becomes enacted?

Reciprocity? “Online political discussions that feature

politicians do enjoy greater participation, but are frequently dominated by politicians who employ them to advocate for their agendas(Jensen 2003). Uses of digital media by politicians and the media tend to be one directional and do not sustain feedback channels for the digital public or enable substantive citizen involvement”(239)

Is this necessarily true when we consider the use of Twitter in the 2008 elections? Or the fact that news look to Twitter to find leads on new stories?

Direct Representation “…citizens go online to complement or

substitute their uses of traditional communication and directly represent their opinions, when possible and necessary. Politicians and media institutions, on the other hand, make use of digital media to supplement their own agendas and objectives, as they see fit”(240).

Subversion “With the incorporation of subversive activities enabled by the

internet to this model, we are left with a set of online digital media that do not revive the public sphere, but inject a healthy dose of plurality to a maturing model of representative democracy”(241)

Egypt anyone? “While not all instances have successfully destabilized the

existing power structure, they originated as adversarial, possess elements of what Mouffe (2005) terms a ‘confliction consensus’ and attempt a real confrontation based on a shared set of rules and despite disparate individual positions (p.52)”(241)

“Thus, the direct representation and subversive capabilities of online media enable agonistic expressions of dissent that do not necessary empower the public sphere, but enhance democracy”(241)

Is Twitter a public sphere?

How democratizing is Twitter?

Are voices really being heard? Or is it merely an illusion of agency?

Conclusions…