The public sphere was developed by Habermas and can broadly be defined
as “a social room which is created when individuals act communicatively” and a
place “where equal citizens assemble into a public and set their own agenda
through open communication” (Eriksen & Weigard, 2003, pp.178-179).
The public sphere is based upon freedom and allows citizens to discuss
and debate the general conditions for the common good (Eriksen & Weigard,
2003, pp.196). From an organizational perspective it serves to increase public
participation in the functioning of a company and thus empowers consumers and
the wider society.
There is a plethora of nutrition, health and fitness writers
in the blogosphere, talking about things from how to do a push up, to which
protein powder to add to your green smoothie recipe. While generally all these
types of blogs are based upon an individual’s opinion on how to get healthy,
they differ quite significantly blog to blog. This is a huge aspect of the
public sphere, an area where individuals can come to discuss.
The public sphere allows citizens to access freedom of information,
which is a “fundamental feature of a democratic society,” (Street, 2011, p.
327).
What I find most interesting about the abundance of
information these blogs have to offer is that they are coming from every corner
of the globe. The technical and original meaning of the public sphere was
literally a room where society came to converse, however with improvements of
technology has developed an innovative diversity to the term.
The blogosphere encapsulates the ideal behind the public
sphere, as it allows individuals to offer their ideas in an equal and
independent manner. According to Myers (2010) “blogs
broaden the terrain of public discussion, potentially allowing anyone with an Internet
connection to speak to a wider audience” (p. 273). The uses of colloquial
language in blogs also creates a sense of understanding and relate ability
amongst readers as Dettori & Torsani (2013) argue informal language
helps to enrich the learning process of individuals (p. 93).
REFERENCE:
Eriksen, EO & Weigard, J 2003, ‘Public opinion formation and
rational politics’, in Understanding
Habermas, communicative action and deliberative democracy, Continuum,
London, pp.178-196
Dettori, G, & Torsani, S 2013, 'Enriching Formal Language Learning with an
Informal Social Component', Journal Of Educational Technology &
Society, 16, 1, pp. 93-103, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost,
Myers, G 2010, 'Stance-taking
and public discussion in blogs', Critical Discourse Studies, 7, 4, pp.
263-275, Humanities Source, EBSCOhost
Street, J. (2011). Mass media, politics and democracy, 2nd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.
303–328.
I like the analogy you have drawn to the kinds of people that are actually using te blogosphere, it goes to show how universal blogs can be to so many diffrent kinds of people, whether it's about travel, fitness, food or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIt is important that you have noted that blogs are coming from every corner of the globe, and because of their sharing capacity and internet connection, enabling individuals to reach larger audiences than ever before.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really strong post. Your structure is perfect and your arguments relate back to the reading very well. It is clear that you think the blogosphere can act as an independent and impartial public sphere. With clear examples stating the abundance of information readily available and definitions stating what is a 'public sphere' it made the point of view taken very clear.
I did notice that there was no images or video files attached. This is a requirement of the weekly posts and by adding one it could easily improve your marks. Also there were no links within the post, again by reading over and adding links within your marks would easily improve.
Apart from some simple structural improvements your post is really good, it follows the layout perfectly and has solid referencing and grammar.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI like how you refer to the people that write in the blogosphere showing how can blogs be part of globalisation and showing how blogs can be written by someone somewhere and be read by other person elsewhere. Blogs can talk about anything like travel, sport, fitness, food or anything. And some of them because of popularity became attached to web pages and someone that start blogging for hobby became employed by a webpage or newspaper. It is also important to mention that some blogs might not be good for reference because they don´t show references or enough resources to prove the content shown.