The public sphere in contemporary society is very troublesome to say the least. Our societies priorities seem to be different than what they should be. Instead of focusing on real news, both local and national or the presidential campaign, society seems to be more consumed with reality TV and whats going on in the latest celebrity scandal. We're so busy caught up in our own, self consumed world, we seem to be missing the big picture. We've allowed the current public sphere and those speakers in it to derail our thoughts and focuses to things that are being advertised or what celebrities are doing. Globally is a whole other problem. Days will go by before even our news channels will mention anything globally, yet our country is at war? troubling isn't it? Even though there are outlets for people to do research on there own, once turning on your computer, our screens are flooded with advertisements and articles concerning the newest iPhones or what new reality show is starting in the fall.
If something doesn't change with our current public life, we are doomed to possibly repeat some of our histories biggest mistakes. The only way to know what is going on in our world locally and nationally, even globally is to invest our own time in researching our worlds events. Until we stop being so consumed with THINGS and irrelevant PEOPLE, we wont grasp the full picture of the current state of our world, thus not allowing ourselves to be active particpants in the PUBLIC.
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ReplyDeleteKalie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, especially being international, that media isn't showing enough of global events as they actually appear. For example, last week there was an earthquake in China, however, at that moment most of news channels focused on political campaign instead. Moreover, each political party affiliates itself with certain channels and there are communication laws, like "equal-time rule" regulating and affecting their presence on the media. It is upsetting that the rest of the time, like you note, is filled with celebrity news (but as discussed in the class, it is done so in accordance to what majority demands, really?). Even though this deteriorates the image of the public sphere, the increase of citizen journalism still keeps it in more realistic form. I will post a separate example from the events in my country, Lithuania, where media was clearly manipulated, yet truth was still exposed by regular citizens with their tiny cell phone cameras. Maybe this has changed the public sphere that we look for worthy answers from a regular citizen than from the so called "public intellectual."