by Tengku Rashidah Hanim Raja Ahmad
Without doubt, Internet is the most important communication medium today. It is the most important development in communication and it also has create the global ‘public sphere’ where people globally has direct access to each other, where they can simply just express their arguments without any hesitation or censorship.Internet also has been told as ‘center of the communication’ where most of the people nowadays prefer to use the Internet as their favorite channel to communicate. However, according to Kasun Ubayasiri from the Central Queensland University, there are numbers of questions being asked how the massive volume of the inane chatter on forums such as youtube, myspace and a vast number of blogs, discussion boards and chatrooms could fulfill the conditions of a public sphere as forum for critical and rational debate. This is true because sometimes, most of the feedbacks and comments are just judgmental critiques, not reliable and unfair.
It is important to clearly understand the nature of the ideological arena that Jurgen Habermas has dubbed the ‘public sphere’. He defines the public sphere as the “realm of our social life in something approaching public opinion can be formed. (Where) access is guaranteed to all citizens” (Habermas, 1989, p102).
He (Habermas) also argues that publicity is not constitute of a social realm, but more like a status attribute when someone displayed or presented himself or something as an picture of some power.
HABERMAS AND THE INTERNET
The internet basically is the free access medium of communication and it is introduce to this in heavy commercialized theatre of mass communication. Leaving a sparking great expectations in the minds of those that support the refreshing the public sphere. However, Lincoln Dahlberg argue that the internet is not been 100% successful in creating the public sphere or even the optimism of its future ability to create public sphere. He said that “a cursory examination of thousand of diverse conversations taking place every day, online and open to anyone who has internet access seems to incicates the expansion on a global scale of the loose webs of rational-critical discourse that constitute what is known as the public sphere” (February 2001).
While mass media have failed to create public sphere, mass media itself at times play a significant role in gaining and retaining the democracy in numerous political threatens. Habermas himself has not quite sure to speculate on the internet role as the public sphere. In his speech on March 9, 2006 he said “use of the internet has both broadened and fragmented the context of communication. That is why the internet can have bad effect on intellectual life in authoritarian regimes. But at the same time, less formal and cross linking of communication channels weakens the achievements of traditional media. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus”.
In this context it should also be noted the public sphere as Habermas defined it, while granting free access has never forced every member of the people to participate. Similarly the internet based public spheres, while providing the forum for those who are interested in engaging in critical debate, can not anticipate all users of the web to engage in meaningful dialogue.
However it can also be argued that the internet’s potential in creating public sphere, can be and has to be connect by ‘public intellectuals’ if the cyberspace is to fulfill its potential as a forum for public spheres. In this context the argument can be presented, despite the risk of over simplification, as need for cyber analogues with the cafe and bar which brought the intellectuals together, thus it is creating an environment conducive for the sharing of ideas and so the sustenance of a public sphere.
THE US ELECTION CAMPAIGN ON YOUTUBE: A CASE STUDY.
by Kasun Ubayasiri [CENTRAL QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY]
Less than two years after in inception US politicians have made an appearance on the video sharing website, providing a forum for the American public to directly respond with text and video comments. By passing the media’s selection process, and hence any potential biases and political and commercial agenda’s of the mass media.
In this context Barack Hussein Obama a relatively junior senator for Illinois has been quick to harness the internet’s You Tube public sphere to post no less than 41 video clips between October 2006 and mid-April 2007. According to his You Tube site the BarackObamadotcom channel registered on September 5, 2006 has been hub of political activity and dialogue, with a video clip of a speech highlighting his anti Iraq invasion policy posted on March 19 receiving 146619 views and 403 comments by mid April, 2007. Obama’s official website, which according to Whois server information is registerd to his campaign office “Obama for America, 233 N. Michigan Ave, Suite 1100, Chicago, Illinois 60601” contains a prominent link to his You Tube channel. The You Tube channel boasts 4674 subscribers and 2,767,667 channel views.
Similarly Hillary Clinton’s official website, www.hillaryclinton.com has linked to a Hillary for President – You Tube channel which had been operational under the ‘hillaryclintondotcom’ login since July 21, 2006. The channel boasting 1508 subscribers and 114,977 viewers according to automated counters, has posted 20 videos. Compared to Obama it can be argued Clinton has enjoyed limited success on You Tube, with her ‘Children's Health Care’ Video published on March 14, 2007, has been viewed 9049 times and has received a mere 26 comments. Both channels have also been copied and ‘favourited’ by a significant number of You Tube users thus mirroring the clips and increasing their exposure. The accumulative effect of these websites and their comments is too numerous to study, and beyond the scope of this paper. However it should be noted that even within the context of American politics the you tube public sphere’s attention is not limited to Obama and Clinton; and channels such as Politicstv created on March 28, 2006 cover a iwde range of political responces form both sides of the US political spectrum.
The channel - www.youtube.com/politicstv, boating 1479 subscribers and 27,007 viewers presents 509 videos in just over 12 months of operations. It has also been cited by You Tube as the 54th most frequently accessed You Tube channel in April – a list, interestingly topped by a reality docudrama hosted by LG15 on http://www.youtube.com/lonelygirl15, a site containing 114 segments in the life of a sixteen year-old girl. Thus suggesting while the YouTube offers an environment conducive for rational critical debate – thus a forum for a public sphere, and while it is harnessed to some extent by the public, their need for leisure purportedly a construct of the cultural industries and hegemony of the dominant media influence continue to hamper, at least to some extent, the wide growth of a cyber public sphere.
source: ejournalist.com
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