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The Radio 3 Boards > General Chat > The Coffee Bar > Internet forums (like this) and the 'public sphere'?
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Author Topic: Internet forums (like this) and the 'public sphere'?  (Read 313 times)
Ian Pace
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« on: 18:01:20, 04-05-2007 »
I was thinking about the way that on this and many other forums there is some type of public debate about various issues (in this case primarily but not excusively those relating to music, for example the currently ongoing debate about the commission circuit v. stipendaries for composers or other alternatives). I suppose some would say that this might be a lot of hot air, as we don't actually make the decisions (well, some of us are involved in some ways in the processes, but many are not). But I wondered if places like this constitute a new cyber-equivalent of the 'public sphere', which was written about at length by Jürgen Habermas amongst others - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere . Personally, I do feel that public debate on many issues is a good thing and worth encouraging, and perhaps might in some way filter outwards to have some wider effect? I just wondered anyone else's feelings on the issue?

(by the way, if John or Michael are reading this and think it belongs in a different sub-forum, do let me know and I'll delete it and repost it there)
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
thompson1780
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« Reply #1 on: 18:39:49, 04-05-2007 »
I can't read your link as I'm on PDA, but I would say this is very much public sphere.

But there are so many ways for the public to expeas themselves now that I guess there is a public sphere and within that a subset that is a public sphere to which attention is paid.

We are a far cry away from the days when decision makers could just read the Times to get a gist of the nation's views.  Even Nation is a bit outdated now.

So, public but not necessarily listened to....

Tommo
« Last Edit: 23:56:00, 04-05-2007 by thompson1780 » Logged
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« Reply #2 on: 19:36:16, 04-05-2007 »
Internet fora offer the possibility to erode the restrictions placed on the public sphere by economics and social hierarchies, and thus offer the possibility for a certain communicative emancipation (just as something like Wikipedia offers information emancipation). They are accompanied by problems, of course, arising from the fact that people can be as open or cagey as they like without having to deal with it in a genuine social situation; Internet flame wars often develop in ways that wouldn't arise in personal encounters, where there are more inhibitions and a certain assumption that you have to know someone a little bit before you can start being aggressive or patronising towards them. On the whole a good thing, I reckon, though one shouldn't let them become a substitute for real life.
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #3 on: 19:51:00, 04-05-2007 »
It is great to exchange one's views with people. One can understand perhaps a wrong attitude or error in one's thinking or learn something new.
Internet is a liberation from close mind and for feeling of isolation. I love this forum. I would never have an opportunity to meet such interesting people and exange views on many subjects.
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Lord Byron
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« Reply #4 on: 19:55:24, 04-05-2007 »
The web is a good way to meet like minded folk, for example, radio 3 folk or byron fans, I have chatted with folk from all over the world, tis cool.
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go for a walk with the ramblers http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
marbleflugel
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« Reply #5 on: 23:51:41, 04-05-2007 »
This is a bit of a commonplace, but maybe less so in the alledgedly elysian fields of artistic debate. Its that media and creative outlet power is becoming entirely market-driven (eg the resale value of creative product commissioned by the bbc) . I am a humble example of someone for whom extended formal education was
inaccessible because of the imperative of generating income, and this is now a very common situation.
For me this place is a sort of semi-professional development think tank, where I thought I was destined to plod on moreorless self-directed in my learning. Access to democracy and financial autonomy in an ageing society also depends on mobility, social and physical. The web facilitates so many basics uniquely, and I wonder if it may not come to be synonymous with democracy quite soon, the arbiter of who, and what  gets a voice in a post-television age. 
The other great thing -and this runs contrary to what I believe may be the initial flurry of invective in the medium-
is that with the abolition of hierarchy ( as things run here anyway) we can play to each others' strengths.
The ammassing of power by media companies (Murdoch and MySpace, Google and YouTube) is perhaps inevitable,
and the draconian attempts to curb net radio (emergency esxemption bill before Congress right now for example)
reflects the fact that we have got the bureaucrats worried. In short ,this place and others are democracy in more subtle action than you otherwise get (eg for lack of a fully proportional  electoral system)
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'...A  celebrity  is someone  who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'

Arnold Brown
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« Reply #6 on: 09:33:12, 05-05-2007 »
mrbleflugel, they say that the Soviet Union disintegrated because of the computer and technology. There was too much freedom required for citizens of the state in order for it to make progress. They could not control things as good as before.
Computers are good in helping you to learn and to continue to improve on what you know.
One can also do undesirable things with it (like passing information on how to build  bombs or something)
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