“Actually, it’s about ethics in games journalism.”The potential and limitations of the Internet as a public sphere

The Public Sphere“The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor.”

(Habermas, 1989)

Media and the Public Sphere

Cyberutopia“Democracy involves democratic participation and debate as well as voting. In the Big Media Age, most people were kept out of democratic discussion and were rendered by broadcast technologies passive consumers of infotainment. (...) In the Internet Age, everyone with access to a computer, modem, and Internet service can participate in discussion and debate, empowering large numbers of individuals and groups kept out of the democratic dialogue during the Big Media Age.”

(Kellner, 1998)

Brushed Under the Mousepad

“The anonymity of the Internet can work both ways. True, no one can see what color I am, but no one has to see what color I am. Therefore, the touchy subject of race can be brushed under the mousepad.”

(McLaine, 2003)

And yet...“The points is that, in stratified societies, subaltern counterpublics have a dual character. On the one hand, they function as spaces of withdrawal and regroupment; on the other hand, they also function as bases and training grounds for agitational activities directed toward wider publics.”

(Fraser, 1990)

Actually...

A word of warningThe next few slides contain material that may be distressing (misogynistic abuse). Please feel free to leave the room for a few minutes if you wish to avoid this content.

Ethics in Games Journalism

Misogynist Hate Campaign

Your turn...● Get into groups of 3.● Write a short Wikipedia article about

GamerGate.● You have 15 minutes.● Please make sure your articles are legible.● Bullet points or outlines are fine, as long as

it’s clear what you want to say.

Your turn...● Swap your articles with another group.● Now edit the other group’s article.

Final thoughts...● In your article, whose experiences did you

privilege?● Whose experiences or points of view did you

marginalise?● Were there any major points of disagreement when

you got to edit the other group’s text? Why?● Final thoughts on the potential and limitations of the

internet as a public sphere?

Further Reading● Fraser, N. (1990) “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the

Critique of Actually Existing Democracy”, Social Text 26 ● Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere:

An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society ● Kellner, D. (1998) “Techno-politics, new technologies, and the new public

spheres”, Illuminations● McLaine, S. (2003) “Ethnic Online Communities: Between Profit and

Purpose”, Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice● Rheingold, H. (2000) The virtual community: homesteading on the

electronic frontier● Salter, L. (2003) “Democracy, New Social Movements, and the Internet: A

Habermasian Analysis”, Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice