Digital Politics and Power: The dream of democracy/The public sphere

In this lecture we looked at how digital media has effected concepts of democracy. As a journalism student want wannabe know-it-all, it's important for me in my chosen career to be aware of how journalism and the media does and has affected society. I mean I haven't got the brains to be a doctor, the patience to be a teacher or the attention span to be a lawyer so I might as well do something worthwhile with my life. It's also important for me and for everyone to be honest to be up to date with Politics and know the simple background of key concepts and events.




Ok, so we are a democratic society. We use Representative Democracy, which basically means we choose as a society who to give the power of decision making too, and they have the final say in what goes and what  doesn't. We choose representatives of political parties who have different ideas, who all want to be in power. As we are such a diverse nation we would never all agree on anything, so we choose who we personally think would control the country in the way that would best advantage us. For example, a student wishing to go to University may vote for the Liberal  Democrats because one Mr Clegg promised not to raise the fee's but it turns out Mr Clegg is a liar. He said 'Sorry' though.

''I'm Sorry''

Moving on, another type of democracy used in places such as Switzerland is 'straight democracy'. It is literally what it says on the tin. This is the most straightforward form, where people physically congregate to make joint decisions on things, and majority rules. The other kind is Liberal Democracy.

 Ok, so now we're all politicians, what on earth has this got to do with Journalism?

Well, in the lecture and in other areas of my Journalism course, I've come across this strange character Jurgen Habermas. This sociologist and philosopher defines the Public Sphere simply as a group of people combining together to make a 'public'. This was traditionally thought to be 18th Century men who would join together and discuss topics in that weeks newspapers, mainly politics and current affairs. They would then transmit their opinions and ideas on the topics to the rest of the public, and they would therefore have a voice in society. Habermas says this links to modern times, looking at it as if the 'public sphere' were journalists who spread political news and put it in ways for the general public to understand and so everyone can debate on. It could be argued this is a key point for democracy, as everyone is supposed to have a say in the way politicians run the country.



References/Further Reading:

What is Democracy? http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/democracy and http://www.stanford.edu/~ldiamond/iraq/WhaIsDemocracy012004.htm
Types of Democracy: http://samaunvong.hubpages.com/hub/Types-of-Democracy
Liberal Democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy
Habermas Explained: http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/jurgen-habermass-public-sphere.html