The (re)production of publicness and privateness in the liquid modern society

Internetization probably represents the greatest transformation in communication technology since the invention of the alphabet and writing. For the fi rst time in history, the mutual determinacy of publicness and privateness has been materialized within a single technological platform. The unprecedented growth of public, private and hybrid modes of communication on the web and in social media indicates that the internet use can signifi cantly infl uence the future of publicness, privateness, and political processes at large. The article discusses new modes of relationship developed in the integrated public-private communication networks (IPPCN), such as privacity and publicy, and new avenues for the formation of the IPPCN-based publics

Oživljavanje političkog kapitalizma u medijima Srednje i Istočne Europe

The article examines a decade of changes in the media after the collapse of the socialist system in East-Central Europe. Several structural tendencies in the ECE countries may be identified which are, in different degrees, spread throughout the region and reflect the imitative nature of the new systems. It is argued that the imitative nature of the newly emerging systems is an almost unmanageable obstacle to the development of more democratic systems in the region. The imitative tendencies are clustered in two broader groups: (1) those imitating external environment, primarily Western Europe and the USA, which comprise Italianization; denationalization and privatization; commercialization, and inter- or transnationalization; and (2) those “imitating the past”, i.e. the former system of state socialism: renationalization, and nationalistic and religious exclusivism. In addition to the domination of unilateral imitation, the greatest impediment to the progress in media democratization represents an immense increase in lawsuits against journalists and the media, in which journalists are often found guilty of libel and offence and severely fined or even imprisoned. Consequently, the developments in the ECE countries led to the establishment of a kind of “political capitalism” and created a system of “paternalist commercialism” in the media, with the state (government) often acting both as a powerful political and economic actor.Autor analizira promjene u medijima Srednje i Istočne Europe u desetljeću nakon raspada socijalističkog sustava. Uočava nekoliko strukturnih tendencija u tim zemljama koje su, u različitoj mjeri, prisutne u cijeloj regiji i odražavaju imitativnu narav novih sustava. Po autorovu mišljenju, imitativna priroda novih sustava u nastajanju predstavlja gotovo nesavladivu prepreku u razvoju demokratičnijih sustava u toj regiji. Te imitativne tendencije mogu se svrstati u dvije veće skupine: (1) one koje imitiraju vanjsko okruženje, prvenstveno Zapadnu Europu i Sjedinjene Američke države, a obuhvaćaju talijanizaciju, denacionalizaciju i privatizaciju, komercijalizaciju, te interi transnacionalizaciju; (2) one koje “imitiraju prošlost”, to jest, bivši sustav državnog socijalizma, a zagovaraju renacionalizaciju i nacionalistički i vjerski ekskluzivizam. Pored dominacije jednostranog oponašanja, najveću prepreku napretku u demokratizaciji medija predstavlja ogroman porast broja sudskih tužba protiv novinara i medijskih kuća zbog klevete. Nerijetko se proglašavaju krivim zbog klevete i uvrede časti i osuđuju na visoke globe ili čak na zatvorske kazne. Tako je u zemljama Srednje i Istočne Europe uspostavljena jedna vrsta “političkog kapitalizma” i stvoren sustav “paternalističkog komercijalizma” u medijima, u kojem se država (vlada) često javlja kao moćan politički i ekonomski akter

The Rationality of Discourse vs. Discursive Surveillance Controversies between Two Conceptualizations of Public Opinion in Theory and in Empirical Research

U telefonskoj anketi 435 odraslih osoba u cijeloj zemlji ispitan je utjecaj alternativnih skupova prediktivnih varijabli o spremnosti pojedinaca da se javno očituju i njihovu stvarnom ponašanju u javnosti. Nacrt empirijske studije proizlazi iz teorijske rasprave o tome može li model “javnog mišljenja kao društvene kontrole”, poput spirale šutnje, doista nadoknaditi konceptualne i eksplanatorne “nedostatke racionalnog javnog mišljenja”, u kojoj je izloženo nekoliko argumenata protiv pojednostavljenog modela javnoga mišljenja kao nadzora. Kao rezultat, za mjerenje važnosti različitih izvora varijance u zavisnim varijablama, upotrijebljen je niz prediktivnih varijabli. Istraživanje otkriva značajne razlike između hipotetične spremnosti ispitanika da govore i stvarnog javnog izražavanja njihovih mišljenja u smislu prediktivnih varijabli te između alternativnih objašnjenja obiju zavisnih varijabli. U cjelini, rezultati ankete potvrđuju teorijske argumente protiv isključenja “racionalne” komponente iz (empirijskih) istraživanja javnoga mišljenja.A nationwide telephone survey of 435 adult Slovenes examined the impact of alternative sets of predicting variables on individuals’ willingness to speak in public and their actual public conduct. The design of empirical study proceeds from a theoretical discussion of whether the model of “public opinion as social control,” such as the spiral of silence, may indeed compensate for the conceptual and explanatory “deficiencies of rational public opinion,” in which several arguments against a simplistic surveillance model of public opinion are presented. As a result, a set of seven predicting variables was used to measure the importance of different sources of variation in the dependent variables. The study reveals significant differences between the respondents’ hypothetical willingness to speak and the actual public expression of their own opinions in terms of predicting variables, and between alternative explanations of both dependent variables. On the whole, the survey results support the theoretical arguments against the exclusion of the “rational” component from (empirical) public opinion studies

Masovni mediji između javnosti i javne sfere Mass Media Between the Public and the Public Sphere

Javna sfera kao specifična sfera, domena, imaginarni prostor komunikacijski posredovanog društvenog života ili kao diskurzivno izgrađen društveni prostor između države i civilnog (isprva buržujskog) društva, predstavlja infrastrukturu za društvenu integraciju kroz javni diskurs. Uzima se za gotovo da nema određenih društvenih normi (npr. privatnost, vlasništvo) ili regulatornih pravila (npr. formalno članstvo) koje bi građanima ograničile pristup javnoj sferi, i da nema određenog znanja ili kompetencije potrebne da im omogući da u njemu sudjeluju. Javna bi sfera mogla biti ili (1) sfera javnoga, npr. komunikacijske sfere stvorene i održavane od strane medija, koje uključuju odnose moći i prevlasti (“javna sfera”), ili (2) sfera publike/a sastavljenih od slobodnih i jednakih građana koji sudjeluju u javnoj raspravi. U oba slučaja princip javnoga predstavlja samu srž ideje javne sfere. U empirijskom smislu, javna se sfera često smatra nekom vrstom “kompromisa” ovih dvaju “idealnih tipova”. Ideja javne sfere uvelike se referira na ulogu medija i javnog mnijenja u modernim reprezentativnim demokracijama; normativna konceptualizacija medija dolazi u prvi plan u ideji javnog medijskog servisa

Citizen Journalism at the Margins

Amidst burgeoning literature on citizen journalism, we still know relatively little about how and why genuinely marginalised groups seek to use this form of reporting to challenge their exclusion. In this article, we aim to address this gap by analysing two UK citizen journalism initiatives emanating from The Big Issue Foundation, a national homeless organisation, and Access Dorset, a regional charity for disabled and elderly people. These case studies are united by the authors’ involvement in both instances, primarily through designing and delivering bespoke citizen journalism education and mentoring. Based on over 40 hours of interviews with participants of the workshops and 36 hours of participant observation, we analyse the challenges participants faced in their journey to become citizen journalists. This included: low self-esteem, physical health and mental wellbeing, the need for accessible and adaptable technology, and overcoming fear associated with assuming a public voice. We also analyse marginalised groups’ attitudes to professional journalism and education, and its role in shaping journalistic identity and self-empowerment. Whilst demonstrably empowering and esteem building,our participants were acutely aware of societal power relations that were seemingly still beyond their ability to influence. Those who are marginalised are, nevertheless, in the best position to use citizen journalism as a conduit for social change, we argue - though challenges remain even at the grassroots level to foster and sustain participatory practices

A Marxist Approach to Communication Freedom

This article is an abridged translation of the section “Produkcija in komuniciranje: nujnost in svoboda” (Production and communication: necessity and freedom) of Slavko Splichal’s book Množično komuniciranje med svobodo in odtujitvijo (Mass Communication between Freedom and Alienation, pp. 123-138), published in Slovene in 1981 after it was defended as a doctoral thesis in 1979. The article, which was among the earliest on its topic, starts with the discussion of Marx’s approach to the freedom of the press in his “Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly”, from the perspective of his later economic critique of capitalism, to show the inherent connection between human communication and work. This indissoluble connection is the starting point of the critique of “critical theories” aiming at “liberating” communication from work and production, exemplified by Habermas’s dualistic conception of work and communication. The concluding part discusses the relationship between communication freedom, rationality, and alienation, arguing that the freedom of communication cannot be founded on its independence from work (material production), but only on the emancipation or disalienation of human labour, and emphasising the danger that, if this does not happen, one-party socialist system with state and social ownership of the means of production and state-controlled economy will deteriorate into a multiparty capitalist system with private ownership and monopolistic economy. The article is followed by an afterword in which the author writes in a retrospect, after 40 years, about political and intellectual circumstances of the self-management socialism, which shaped the development of communication and media studies in “late socialism” – i.e. in the period preceding and heralding the collapse of socialism.</jats:p

Od \u27sumne sreče\u27 h kultiviranemu razglabljanju

Analiza Kantove in Benthamove konceptualizacije načela publicitete razkriva temeljno razliko med v sodobnosti prevladujočo idejo svobode tiska, ki izhaja iz Benthamove "sumne sreče", ter Kantovo zahtevo po javni rabi uma in njegovim načelom publicitete. Bentham je v interesu splošne sreče zagovarjal svoboden tisk kot sredstvo javnega nadzora parlamenta. Kant je zagovarjal svobodno javno razpravo kot instrument razvoja in izražanja človekove avtonomne racionalnosti. Toda "svoboden tisk", ki je utelešen v lastninski pravici njegovih lastnikov, ne more doseči ne Benthamovih ne Kantovih ciljev, ki v ospredje postavljajo osebnostno pravico komuniciranja, ne pa korporacijsko pravico svobode tiska. V demokratičnih družbah, v katerih državljani, ne pa posamezni stanovi, legitimirajo oblast, bi moralo nadzorstveno razsežnost publicitete, ki se izraža v korporacijski svobodi tiska, učinkovito dopolniti delovanje v smeri izenačevanja državljanov v javni rabi uma