Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Structures of the Public Sphere: Contested Spaces as Assembled Interfaces
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8504-5691
Sheffield Hallam University, GBR.
University of Vienna, AUT.
2021 (English)In: Media and Communication, E-ISSN 2183-2439, Vol. 9, no 3, p. 16-27Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article updates certain aspects of the normative notions of the public sphere. The complex ecosystem of social communications enhanced by mobile media platform activity has changed our perception of space. If the public sphere has to normatively assess the expected conditions for public debate and for democracy, the assemblage of devices, discourses, infrastructures, locations, and regulations must be considered together. The literature reviewed about the public sphere, spaces, and geographically-enabled mobile media leads this article to the formulation of a concept of the public sphere that considers such assemblage as an interface. As an empirically applicable update to the definition of the public sphere the text offers a model that helps analyze those factors considering how they shape the communicative space in four modes: representations, structures, textures, and connections. These modes consider the roles played by assemblages of devices, infrastructures, and content in delimiting the circulation of information. The second part of the article illustrates the model with examples from previous research, paying particular attention to the structures' mode. The dissection of qualitative, quantitative, and geodata generated by digital and (visual) (n)ethnographic tools reveals three subcategories for the analysis of structures of space: barriers, shifts, and flows. The structures effectively enable/disable communication and define centers and peripheries in the activity flows. The contribution of this article is, thus, conceptual-it challenges and updates the notion of the public sphere; and methodological-it offers tools and outputs that align with the previously developed theoretical framework.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
COGITATIO PRESS , 2021. Vol. 9, no 3, p. 16-27
Keywords [en]
assemblage, geomedia, interface, mobile media, public space, public sphere, structures of space
National Category
Information Systems
Research subject
Information Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-85581DOI: 10.17645/mac.v9i3.3932ISI: 000677663500003OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-85581DiVA, id: diva2:1583177
Available from: 2021-08-05 Created: 2021-08-05 Last updated: 2022-03-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Brantner, Cornelia

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Brantner, Cornelia
By organisation
Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013)
In the same journal
Media and Communication
Information Systems

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 145 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf