Public sphere participation online. The ambiguities of affect
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18861/ic.2018.13.1.2824Keywords:
digital public spheres, affect and politics, political participation, online politics, civic engagementAbstract
The point of departure of this article is the growing attention to affect as an important aspect of political participation, particularly in the context of online media’s role in democracy and public spheres. The approach is to pull together a broad range of research and analysis on participation, public spheres and affect, with the aim of highlighting important gains as well as issues and ambiguities. In addressing this cluster of interrelated concerns, we do not find a cumulative body of unified knowledge, but rather strands from various traditions. While this may present some difficulties, it may serve also to encourage us to reflect on our own premises. The first section deals with the concept of participation, arguing for a robust view that sees it an intervention, however small, into power relations. The second section pursues the notion of affect, framing it within the force-field of rationality and emotionality that has been a traditional motif within democracy theory. The third section focuses on the online environment, in particular social media, highlighting some of the lingering ambivalences of online participation and their relevance for affect. The final section offers some brief reflections on affect and populism, including the theme of legitimate public pathways to knowledge.
Downloads
References
Aiken, M. (2017). The Cyber Effect. York: Random House.
Alexander, J., Breese, E. & Luengo, M. (edits.) (2016). The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered: From Technology to Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Alvares, C. & Dahlgren, P. (2016). Populism, extremism, and media: Mapping an uncertain terrain. European Journal of Communication, 31, 46-57.
Andrejevic, M. (2013). Infoglut: How Too Much Information is Changing the Way we Think and Know. Abingdon: Routledge.
Bakaedjieva, M. (2015). Rationalizing sociality: an unfinished script for socialbots. The Information Society: An International Journal, 31, 244–256. DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2015.1020197.
Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal Connections in the Digital Age 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bennett, W. L. & Segerberg, A. (2013). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brennan, G. & Lomasky, L. (1984). Democracy and Decision. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. Cambridge, MA y London: MIT Press.
Canovan, M. (1981). Populism. London: Junction.
Carpentier, N. (2011). Media and Participation: A Site of Ideological-Democratic Struggle. Bristol: Intellect Publishers.
Carr, N. (2014). The Glass Cage: How Our Computers are Changing Us. New York: Norton.
Castells, M. (2012). Networks of outrage and hope: Social movements in the Internet age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Coleman, S. (2014), How Voters Feel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Couldry, N. (2014). The myth of ‘us’: digital networks, political change and the production of collectivity. Information, Communication & Society, 18(6), 235-249.
Couldry, N., & Hepp, A. (eds.) (2013). Conceptualizing mediatization. Communication Theory, 23(3), 608-626.
Couldry, N. & Hepp, A. (2016). The Mediated Construction of Reality. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Couldry, N., Livingstone, S. & Markham, T. (2010). Media Consumption and Public Engagement: Beyond the Presumption of Attention. Basingstoke: Intellect.
Crary, J. (2013). 24/7 Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. London: Verso.
Dahlberg, L. (2014). The Habermasian public sphere and exclusion: an engagement with poststructuralist-influenced critics. Communication Theory, 24(1), 21-41.
Dahlgren, P. (2013). The Political Web: Participation, Media, and Alternative Democracy. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dahlgren, P. (2009). Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Effler, E. (2010). Laughing Saints and Righteous Heroes: Emotional Rhythms in Social Movement Groups. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Eliasoph, N. (1998). Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elliott, A. (2008). Concepts of the Self. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fenton, N. (2016). Digital, Political, Radical. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fernández-Armesto, F. (2010). Truth: A History and Guide for the Perplexed. London: Black Swan.
Franklin, M.I. (2013). Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance, and the Internet. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frosh, S. (2011). Feelings. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: An Introduction. London: Sage.
Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism. London: Verso.
Gilroy-Ware, M. (2017). Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media. London: Repeater Books.
Gladwell, M. (2010).Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted. New Yorker, 4 de octubre. Retrieved: 27/2/2015. Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell
Gregg, M. & Seigworth, G. J. (eds.) (2010).The Affect Theory Reader. North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Habermas, J. (1989). Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hall, C. (2005). The Trouble with Passion: Political Theory Beyond the Reign of Reason. New York: Routledge.
Harris, M. (2014).The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection. New York: ACTUAL/Penguin.
Harvey, D. (1991). The Condition of Post-Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hay, C. (2007). Why We Hate Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hepp, A. (2013). Cultures of Mediatization. Cambridge: Polity.
Highfield, T. (2016). Social Media and Everyday Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hjarvard, S. (2013). The Mediatization of Culture and Society. London: Routledge.
Lundby, K. (ed.) (2014). Mediatization of Communication: Handbooks of Communication Science, 21. Berlín: De Gruter Mouton.
Lunt, P. y Livingstone, S. (2016). Is mediatization the new paradigm for our field? Media, Culture & Society, 38(3), 462-470.
Mair, P. (2013). Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. London: Verso.
Margetts, H., Scott, P. & Yasseri, T. (2016). Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Marichal, J. (2013). Political Facebook groups: Micro-activism and the digital front stage. First Monday, 18(12). Retrieved: 22/1/2017 Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4653/3800
Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press.
McGuigan, J. 2016). Neoliberal Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Morozov, E. (2011). The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World. London: Allen Lane.
Mouffe, C. (2013). Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London: Verso.
Mudde, C. & Kalhausser, C. (2017). Populism: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, J.W. (2016). What is Populism? Filadelfia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Nagle, A. (2017). Kill All Normies. London: Zero Books.
Negt, O. & Kluge. A. (1993). The Public Sphere and Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Panizza, F. (2005). Introduction. En F. Panizza, F. (ed.). Populism and the Mirror of Democracy (pp. 1-31). London: Verso.
Papacharissi, Z. (2010). A Private Sphere: Democracy in a Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Papacharissi, Z. (2014). Affective Publics: Sentiment and the New Political. New York: Oxford University Press.
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Towards new journalism(s):affective news, hybridity, and liminal spaces. Journalism Studies, 16(1), 27-40.
Pettman, D. (2106). Infinite Distraction: Paying Attention to Social Media. Cambridge: Polity.
Phelan, S. (2014). Neoliberalism, Media and the Political. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Phillips, W. &Milner, R. (2017). The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Storsul, T. (2014). Deliberation or self-presentation? Young people, politics and social media. Nordicom Review, 35(2), 17-28.
Sunstein, C. (2017). #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books.
Turner, G. (2002). British Cultural Studies. London: Routledge.
van Dijck, J. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
van Zoonen, L. (2005). Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Virilio, P. (2000). The Information Bomb. London: Verso.
Wodak, R., Khosravinik, M. & Mral, B. (eds.) (2013). Right-Wing Populism in Europe:
Politics and Discourse. London: Bloomsbury.
