Portfolio #3

Part 1:

“Social Media and the Public Sphere” argued that the media supported capitalism and inequality, such as “unequal access… uneven distribution of communicative competence, and the reduction of public debates to a legitimization of dominant opinions created by…elites” (69). In Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, supports the idea that actual journalism is important, such as investigating and reporting beneficial news over whatever will garner the most engagement online. Oliver argues that the environment surrounding journalism needs to adjust because there will be severe consequences if people are not writing hard-hitting news pieces for consumers. The News Atlantis article argues that we are still trying to figure out what digital media and social media are. It also seeks to understand what digital communication is/looks like. I think that digital media supports a public sphere in the realm of social platforms. Online, everything is permanent, similar to speaking verbally. Once you say something in front of an audience, you cannot take it back due to witnesses (or screenshots). It also allows for public discourse.

Part 2:

My term of participation incorporates the idea of the digital public sphere and democracy. For starters, in order for democracy to properly occur, there has to be engagement from participants in the governmental system. In terms of digital democracy, actions like the Iranian protest could not have occurred without the interaction and passion by Twitter users. As far as the digital public sphere, I believe participation too intersects. As mentioned earlier, public discourse cannot occur without the input from others-especially of differing ideologies. But, on the same notion as “Social Media and the Public Sphere”, everyone does not have access to participate digitally. Therefore this public sphere is limited to certain figures and thought processes. This will limit the discourse within the digital public sphere.