Præsidenter kunne være anderledes

Anders Horsbøl: Presidents can be different. Outline of a discourse analytical study of public opinion formation The purpose of this article is to link discourse analysis and theories of public space in order to investigate the formation of public opinion in the mass media. In this regard discourse analysis is understood a neither a fixed method nor a universal theory of the social, but as a per se interdisciplinary approach that needs to be articulated with knowledge systems in specific studies. The article employs the concept of public sphere as developed and rethought by Habermas and a Luhman-style approach to help conceptualise central features of the political and mediated public space in modern complex societies. This conceptualisation leads to a number of rearticulations of discourse analysis as a perspective on formation of public opinion, resulting in a focus on interdiscursivity, reflexivity and recontextualisation. A case study of the Austrian media at the time of the presidential election in 1998 serves as a point of reference and is analysed in order to illustrate how the approach can be applied

'Fake News': Forestillinger om offentlighed i deliberativ belysning

Notions of fake news and post-truth have recently gained attention in public debates in several countries. To a large extent, these notions have been employed to criticize forms of communication and alleged deficits in political debates. The current article examines how the notion of fake news has been articulated in the Danish mass media in a selection of texts from autumn 2017. On the basis of this brief analysis, the article critically discusses the (implicit) understandings of the public sphere and its problems associated with the notion of fake news. To cast a constrastive light on these understandings, deliberative perspectives on a democratic sphere are drawn upon. As a result, the article points to limitations of the notion of fake news when it comes to addressing key challenges of a modern public sphere

Deltagende borgere i Energibyen Frederikshavn

Anders Horsbøl and Lisbeth Eeg Deltagende borgere i Energibyen Frederikshavn (Participating citizen in the Energy City of Frederikshavn). Denmark has some experience with local participation of citizens in projects in which energy saving "green" or sustainable approaches are developed bottom-up. This article focusses on the participating citizens in such an initiative – the Energy City of Frederikshavn – which among other things can praise itself of an ambition of total use of renewable energy in 2015. Based on an analysis of citizens' meetings and interviews with the participants we examine what motives and values the participants stated they had, and what social identities they realized, and how close everyday life is linked to more far-reaching issues.&nbsp