News, Public Opinion and the Public Sphere

Politics 113: Politics and the MediaLecture 4

Emma Blomkamp

Readings Required:

Jurgen Habermas, ‘The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article’ (Course Reader)

Recommended: J.D. Peters, ‘Historical Tensions in the Concept

of Public Opinion’ (ER) Further reading:

Briggs and Burke, ‘Media and the Public Sphere in Early Modern Europe’ (ER)

Allan, ‘The Rise of “Objective” Newspaper Reporting’ (ER)

Democratic communication

o Dialogue (Socrates)o Dissemination (Jesus)o Deliberation

(public opinion formation)

Democratic public opinion

‘All government rests on opinion’ David Hume, 1740

Ancient democracy – the people rule (directly)

Modern democracy – the people rule (indirectly)

The public’s opinion rules (in principle) But what is ‘public opinion’?

News medi

aGovtPubli

c

"Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great."

 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1822) in Philosophy of Right

Weakness of public opinion

Strength of public opinion

‘Public opinion represents a consensus, which emerges over time, from all the expressed views that cluster around an issue in debate, and that this consensus exercises power.’ 

S M Cutlip, A H Center, and G M Broom, Effective Public Relations (1994)

The rise of public opinion‘Public’ and ‘public opinion’ now politically central.‘Public opinion’ a concept forged historically

The rise of ‘the public’ Ancient Greek political ideas Pre-democratic rule, e.g. monarchy, as

‘representative publicness’ Appeals to the people’ (e.g. English Revolution) Rational citizens (Enlightenment onwards)

Meanings of ‘public’1. Visual-intellectual (openly visible or known to all

people)2. Social-political (involving/concerning all citizens)

• Distinction: Public / Crowds / Masses

The rise of public opinion

Revolutionary ideals American Revolution, 1776-

‘Public opinion sets the bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one’ - James Madison, 1790

First Amendment, 1791

French Revolution, 1789- Article XI, Declaration of the Rights of Man and

Citizen, 1789 Original term: opinion publique ‘Public opinion [is] a tribunal’

- Marquis de Condorcet (1793)

Public opinion: the model

Public opinion + media = modern agora A (modern) democratic model

Sovereign people » ‘public opinion’ » responsive government

Media’s ideal roleNews media » informed opinions »

further discussion » ‘public opinion’ » news media » responsive government

The rise of the ‘public sphere’Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962/1989) Sphere of rational-critical public

political debate, oriented towardsconsensus (‘deliberative’)

Public sphere ‘ideal type’ Free from power (state, commercial) Rational-critical discussion Generating ‘public opinion’ as political

consensus/control Access for all citizens Media informing, facilitating, representing

Habermas’s public sphere

Historical model, modern ideal Concepts arose in ‘concrete situation’

Feudalism » commercial society (‘bourgeois’) Private individuals assembled as ‘public’ Rational-critical discussion, informed/reflected

by media Constitutional rights institutionalising public

sphere

- E.g. English coffee houses, early 18th C.

Forging the public sphereCase study: The Spectator (1712- )

‘The moral weeklies were a key phenomenon . . . In the Spectator the public held up a mirror to itself’ Habermas

Spectator ideal Critical; rational Objectivity v partisanship Modelled on dialogue/

discussion Fostering deliberation Autonomy from commerce

Context: the rise of news

News as old as humanity Oral, scribal

But revolutionised in print era Impetus: trade, politics, literacy

Commodification and communication

Limits: small trade, censorship, illiteracy

18thC: growth of periodical press; emergence of daily newspaper

Ye olde media analysis

Items of public interest

Scandals and sensationalism -continuity and change...

Twin faces of news media

Public service-type ideals Rhetoric of ‘the public interest’,

truth-seeking, impartiality, etc.

Partisan and commercial realities Public’s interest: press widely reviled but

widely read ‘Dull Read, vile Applebie, and Mist; the worst

rogues that ever pist, are these three journalists’ (1710)

Press, politics, principles

‘Growth of Fourth Estate’ Political news for popular audiences. . . . . .as product of industrialised media

Media/journalists professionalised Increased reach, resources, credibility

Media/journalists and their norms ‘institutionalised’

News values, routines, writing styles Media ideals reasserted as professional principles

against political and commercial pressures

Public service of news

‘Ideals’ articulated in 17-18th centuries Overlapping arguments for press freedom

‘Private’ rights/interest Self-expression Free press, free market

Public service Informing the public (news,

knowledge, truth) ‘Enlightenment’ role

Representing the public (public opinion)

Watchdog press, Fourth Estate

Transformation of public sphereTowards ‘mass’ media 19th-20thC – media’s ‘industrial revolution’

Political enfranchisement/conflict Literacy rise; censorship decline Commercial impetus – advertising Technology. . .

1814: steam press 5,000 copies per hour

1846: rotary press 20,000 copies an hour

1840s: telegraph 1872: linotype

‘Mass media’ transformation Mass communication

19th-20thC – press, cinema, radio, TV

Mass audience Mass market:

industrialisation/ commercialisation of media

‘Mass appeal’: human interest news, tabloid tendencies

n.b. ‘mass’ an imagined as much as a real unity

0123456789

1800 1900 1950

Highest-selling newspaper (millions)

0

2

4

6

8

10

1920 1923 1924 1939

UK radio sets (millions)

Building businesses

Commercial concentration The Press

1910s ›: rise of ‘media barons’ and newspaper groups

Cinema 1930s-40s: ‘Big

five’ dominate industry

0102030405060708090

1900 1920 1940 1960 2000

Newspapers owned by groups (US, per cent)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1900 1939 1946

Top studios' film revenue (US$ millions)

Public opinion polls Promoting democratic expression?

• Equal weighting to individual voices• Protection from tyranny of the

minority, vocal interest groups Undermining democratic expression?

• Anonymous voices• Misleading measurement of public

opinion• Set agenda and simplify issues• Manipulation to gain desired results

Public opinion and the public sphere: summary

What is public opinion?What is the public sphere?

Next week: Rethinking the Public Sphere Was there a public sphere? Is there a (global) public sphere? Can there be a better public sphere?