The public sphere is a public space which in the past was hard to reach since because there was little way to communicate with others far away from you. Due to media inventions like the printing press and the subsequent growth of literacy, more people are able to connect with each other to use the media in public interest.

Habermas believed that a functioning democracy needed a public voter base that was informed and debated on the issues of the day. Because of the conglomeration of media companies, the issues were filtered to the people through only a few sources. This is the opposite of plurality, which Habermas believes is a good thing that democracies need to function.

Media Watchdog – The idea that the media should act as a watchdog against the state to inform the people of what the government is doing.

• Habermas describes the public sphere as a “society engaged in critically public debate”
• Habermas has allowed all types of media to become interconnected in some sort of way
• Plurality?
• Democracy?
• Concentration of ownership?
• Media watchdog?

• communication between the media and consumers based around a dominant ideology
• media creates new ideologies
• Habermas – development of early modern capitalism created public debate
• people need to be informed and aware of things to form a democracy
• public space between private domain and the government
• source of public information

DENNIS MCQUAIL:

Mass media in the public interest

• The media can be held accountable for what they do
• something’s in the public interest if it serves the ends of the whole society rather than those of some sectors of the society (Banfield 1955)

JAMES CURRAN:

key concepts in liberal democracy :

• media = public watchdog
• public representative
• source of public information

• Public service broadcasting is unresponsive to popular demand

PSB

regulation – free market? or state control

Habermas had a theory of ‘public sphere’ where communication is virtual and society needs to know information through media because it’s what’s good for society to grow.

Media Watchdog

The watchdog role is to override in importance all other functions of the media, and to dictate the form in which the media should be organised.

Public Interest

Denis McQuail states the media serves the public interest whether it’s on purpose or not. In other words they are doing this for the wider benefit of society especially in social and political life.

Regulation- Free market? or State control?

Habermas came up with the theory of the public sphere. He says that there is communication between dominance and the public through the public sphere, using the Media.

Plurality is essential to make people aware and keep communicating

Democracy is essential for other people to have opinions and to have a better world overall. This helps to make sure we live in a fair and understood world.

Around the 1900’s all of the companies were bought

Habermas believes that democracy depends on a public which is informed aware and debates on the issues of the day

‘Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of debate’

‘A good starting point for re-thinking the democratic role of the media is provided by the seminal study of Habermas’

‘Fundamental presumption that the media do serve the ‘public interest”

‘public service broadcast organisations tend to be unduly influenced by the political class’

‘public service broadcasting does not necessarily correspond to reality’

Regulation – free market? or state control?

The government creates laws to make sure that people don’t print bad or hurtful things or lie. But then the state are controlling the media.

• The i is a British national morning paper published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust and distributed across the United Kingdom. It is aimed at “readers and lapsed readers” of all ages and commuters with limited time, and was originally launched in 2010 as a sister paper to The Independent.
• In March 2016 The Independent decided to close its print edition and become an online newspaper; the last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016.
• Oliver Duff is the current editor for the i.
• The i’s political stance is Liberalism‎ and ‎Centrism so its target audience are liberals and centrists
• It costs £3.12 a week for the digital and paper edition together but 99p a month for the app.
• The i circulates around 221,083 different people per year.

• News Values – The criteria that is needed to influence the selection and presentation of events as published news.
• Gatekeepers – A person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, who is granted access to a category or status.
• Deregulation – The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry.
• Free market – A system in which the prices for goods and services are self-regulated by the open market and by consumers.
• Monopolies & Mergers – A British government organization whose job is to examine cases where two companies plan to join together to form one company, and to decide whether this would be bad for other businesses because there will be less competition.
• Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – A process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration
• Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right
• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR
• The Leveson Enquiry – A judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011.
• The Cairncross Review – A survey that was sent out to the public by the government about what we should do about journalism in the UK

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.

Such a discussion is called public debate and is defined as the expression of views on matters that are of concern to the public—often, but not always, with opposing or diverging views being expressed by participants in the discussion.

Public debate takes place mostly through the mass media, but also at meetings or through social media, academic publications and government policy documents.

Habermas and The Public Sphere

Habermas came up with the theory of the ‘public sphere’ as we learnt to read and write we could communicate with people across the country and eventually around the world. This increased when media and the internet merged.

Before this we could not communicate with people from the other side of the world and we were told what to do by the government. After this we could talk to others about these issues and can form alliances to protest against it.

Before we communicated horizontally (people of the same class) whereas now we communicate vertically too (people talk to people that are controlling them and that they are in control of).

Habermas believes that democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware and which debates the issues of the day. This is why lots of us watch the news so we have our own opinions and can say why to others. It is also because we do not want to look stupid.

Habermas believes that the mass media and globalisation has reduced the effectiveness of the public sphere. He believes that the mass media has resulted in a reduction in plurality – there are fewer voices discussing the news.

“a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed and ‘popular’ supervision of government was established”

“the public sphere and the role of the media in relation to it has to be “reconceptualized and reincarnated in a new form.””

Mass Media in the Public Interest – Denis McQuail

• “a fundamental presumption, that the media do serve the ‘public interest’ or ‘general welfare'”
• “that the media are obliged to conform to popular will or carry out some particular mission”
• “is in the public interest if it serves the ends of the whole society rather than those of some sectors of the society”
• You can have “public control” or “deregulation and the further extension of the free market”
• “the mass media are not the same as any other business or service industry, but carry out some essential tasks for the wider benefit of society, especially in cultural and political life.

Mass Media in the Public Interest (Denis McQuail)

Mass Media and Democracy in the Public Service – James Curran

• Curran suggests that in TV programs that have higher demand get peak-time space. Public services organisations run these channels as well as these highly demanded shows they will include the news as this is in the interest of society. They will also be cheap so they can be accessed by everyone.

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media2020/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2018/11/Mass-Media-and-Democracy-James-Curran-Public-Service.pdf

In the extract: Mass Media and Democracy by James Curran there is a focus on Jurgen Habermas and his concept of the ‘Public Sphere‘,basically arguing that the developments in education and the mass media allowed for a greater access to information particularly with regard to government, authority and the exercise of control. Similarly, Denis McQuail argues for a media that specifically works in the public interest and not in a purely commercial interest.

Regulation: State or Free Market

We want a free media that works in the public’s interest. However, it has to be controlled so it doesn’t get out of hand. If the state (government) makes rules (laws) so the media doesn’t take stuff too far (racism, homophobic, sexist and invasion of privacy). But if the government makes these rules they then control the media, which is something we do not want.

James Curran said “Once the media becomes subject to public regulation, it will lose its bite as a watchdog and may even be transformed into a snarling Rottweiler in the service of the state.”

The Liberal Theory of Press Freedom – James Curran

• Freedom to Publish
• Diversity and Chain Ownership
• Loss of Independence
• Competition, Choice and New Technology
• Reappraisal
• Social Market Flirtation
• Restriction on Joint Media Ownership
• Self-Regulation
• Uneasy Ambivalence
• Weak Reformism

• ‘the United Kingdom regards press freedom as an absolute freedom.’ The government leaves it to the market forces to decide which press products survive’ (1992: 53).
• In the case of the press, with certain limited exceptions, no legal restriction is placed on the right to buy or launch a newspaper. (This ensures, in liberal theory, that the press is free, diverse and representative (Curran and Seaton 2003: 346-7).
• In this view of freedom of expression, it is the interests of the press, not of its readers nor of the subjects of its coverage, which are fundamental. (‘Free enterprise is a pre-requisite of a free press’)
• Based on the assumption that democracy is best served by the free exchange of ideas, for which freedom of expression is vital. (‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’)

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media21al/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2019/12/Curran-Press-Freedom-2.pdf

The primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watchdog

Once the media becomes subject to public regulation… transformed… in the service of the state

Three key concepts… the media as a public watchdog, public representative and source of information

reconceptualized and reincarnated in a new form (in reference to the media/news/public sphere

Only by anchoring the media to the free market is it possible to ensure the media’s complete independence from the government.

Currans Writting

The liberal theory of press freedom

Freedom to publish

Diversity and chain ownership

loss of independence

Competition, choice and new technology

Reasppraisal

Social market flirtation

Restriction on joint media ownership

self regulation

uneasy ambivalence

weak reformism