Media Ethics And The Public Sphere 2009 10

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MAC373robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

Where do you stand?

What does it mean to be a journalist?

What is the point of journalism?

Who are journalists responsible to?

What forms should/could journalism take?

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The Flat Earth effect

The news factory and churnalism

Lament about contemporary journalism

Impact on public awareness/engagement/opinion Sets the shape of news landscape Shapes public awareness of issues

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The Flat Earth effect

The journalist as mediator of public knowledge

Journalist as conduit of public opinion

Journalism crucial to democracy?

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Evidence for Flat Earth News:

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin, 2008, ‘Four Rumours and an Explanation: A political economic account of journalists’ changing newsgathering and reporting practices’, Journalism Practice, Vol 2, No 1.

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, Bob Franklin, James Thomas and Nick Mosdell, 2006, The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, commissioned report for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

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The construction of the The construction of the political publicpolitical public

Where are the ancient Greeks? The polis: open to free

citizens

Jürgen Habermas – The public sphere “a realm of our social

life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed”

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An operational public sphere An operational public sphere requires…requires…

A knowable civic authority

A gathering of rational individuals

A means of communicating public opinion to the civic authority

Journalists and media act as ‘public organs’

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One way of representing the One way of representing the public in the media…public in the media…

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The public inquisitor: the (wo)man for the people?

Kirsty Wark John Humphrys Jeremy Paxman Jon Snow

The Public InquisitorThe Public Inquisitor

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Acts on behalf of the media institution

Acts on behalf of the public at large

Carries “celebrity” cache

Have come to act as social commentatorsPaxman versus Howard May

13th 1997

A question of balance…

Broadcast news content required to demonstrate ‘due impartiality’ under Section 5 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code

Davies claims this pursuit of balance dilutes news and acts as a ‘coward’s compromise’ (2008: 133)

61% of public think the BBC should be free to hold political views (Guardian/ICM 2009)

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Due impartiality

Impartiality itself means not favouring one side over another.

“Due” means adequate or appropriate to the subject and nature of the programme.

Helps deflect over-emphasis on extreme minority groups

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Another way of representing the Another way of representing the public in the media…public in the media…

The political public in action … BBC’s Question Time

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The arrangement of The arrangement of Question Question Time Time as an instrument of as an instrument of democratic debatedemocratic debate

The panel as representatives of positions across the “political spectrum”

The audience as representatives of public interest and concern

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The discursive management of The discursive management of Question TimeQuestion Time

Chairperson and production team act as agenda setters and arbiters of legitimacy and truth

Chair adjudicates on the extent and suitability of panel responses

Chair adjudicates on admissibility of audience questions according to the established agenda

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The public sphere and media The public sphere and media conductconduct To what extent does participation in the public

sphere empower both journalists and other citizens?

Should our treatment of individuals be on the basis of their being rational subjects or their being naïve, potential victims of media/journalistic expertise?

Does this form of engagement qualify as journalism/news?

Should journalism be rational, emotional or opinionated?

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Some points to consider

Televised election? BNP on Question Time (October

22nd)? What is the public interest here? What format should these event

take? How should balance be handled?

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Direct public engagement

Guardian/Trafigura/Farrelly gagging order (Oct 12 2009)

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Direct public engagement

Streisand effect – networked amplification

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Real time news

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Real time news

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Real time news

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Hyper-local public spheres?

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Variants: The popular public Variants: The popular public spheresphere

The public sphere operates as a component of the formal political realm

The participatory element of the public sphere can be used in other media contexts

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The media and The media and participationparticipation Media principles and ethics founded on

the basis of a particular form of ‘public’

Participation (interaction) has become a selling point in itself, recasting the public as consumers

The emerging participatory sphere therefore meets the need of the media

The Media SphereThe Media Sphere

“Through a combination of the market and audience demand, the media becomes a space for public participation and discussion outside of the political realm, which nonetheless has political and cultural consequences”

John Hartley (1996) Popular journalism for the term ‘media sphere’ itself

The reaction of the The reaction of the theoriststheorists

Serious political insight requires we look at popular culture as well as high culture

Post-Gramsci (The Prison Notebooks, 1971)

Forms of participationForms of participation

The telethon (Children in Need, Live 8) The telephone vote (Big Brother, I’m a

Celebrity) The radio phone-in (Radio 5 Live) The talk show:

Public discussion (Kilroy, Donaghue, Vanessa’s Real Lives)

Therapeutic (Oprah) Conflict (Jerry Springer)

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – Nightmares with Nightmares with TrishaTrisha and and JerryJerry

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – Nightmares with Nightmares with Trisha Trisha and and JerryJerry “Western man has become a

confessing animal”

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, p. 59

The “Popular Public – The “Popular Public – Nightmares with Nightmares with TrishaTrisha and and JerryJerry Confession is a means of reproducing

moral subjects.

Sex has become part of a moral discourse.

Confession has moved from the private realm to public spectacle.

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – expertise, management expertise, management and powerand power Jürgen Habermas (1987) The

philosophical discourse of modernity: There has emerged a historically

constructed division between “common knowledge” and “scientific rationality”.

Accordingly, within popular forms of discourse, scientific or rational forms are sustained through recourse to authority.

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – expertise, management expertise, management and powerand power Livingstone and Lunt (1994) Talk on

television Popular discussion shows have situated

these forms of knowledge together, presenting them (inappropriately) as having an equal claim to legitimacy.

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – expertise, management expertise, management and powerand power Speakers invited to contribute within

the frame of an editorial narrative.

Questioning of speakers seeks to contain them within an established agenda, and seeks to encourage them to contribute to that agenda.

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – expertise, management expertise, management and powerand power The place of speakers on the floor is

protected by the host.

Speakers are invited to speak on behalf of institutions and disciplines, but their contributions are summarised misrepresented and placed in conflict with the available “lay” discourses.

A new ethics of the A new ethics of the “popular”“popular” The emergence of an alternative

frame of public service The stress on emotionality and

therapeutic formsPeter Lunt and Paul Stenner (2005) “The

Jerry Springer Show as an emotional public sphere”, Media, Culture & Society 27(1): 59-81.

QuestionsQuestions

Are talk shows sufficiently free from institutional control to serve as a space where public opinion can be formed?

Do they provide freedom of access and voice to the public?

Are they constituted on the grounds of a rational disinterested populace seeking consensus?

Does this qualify as journalism?

The “Popular” Public – The “Popular” Public – discussion pointsdiscussion points

Is the popular public participation programme a legitimate form of public sphere?

Is the emphasis on programmes such as Trisha on spectacle and televisuality rather than constructive and informative discussion?

Discuss the political and cultural implications of the forms of subjectivity generated in programmes such as Springer and Trisha.