Portfolio Assignement #3

The reading by Christian Fuchs gives examples of researchers and their reasoning of digital media being a public sphere. Examples such as the one
Jean Burgess and Joshua Green gave with the video platform of Youtube being a public sphere since it enables people to different cultures and political differences with the videos being user submitted from around the world. Similar to Zizi Papacharissi’s contribution with giving the example of political opinions being expressed in vlogs or discussion groups or and mentions youtube as well, Papacharissi called it virtual sphere 2.0. The reading challenge the idealism of a public sphere. “Social media however brings up the question if not all media are in one respect or another social. This depends on how one defines the social aspect” . The reading goes into the social theory based off this with social media proving to be a part of it. Theres no doubt that the emergence of social media has revolutionized the way people connect and inform each other around the word for better or worse. The Inescapable Town Square reading show this with it initally praising social media to then showing its flaws of it to society. Reading begins with it saying how social media was a powerful tool for revolutions such as the “Twitter Revolution” being about iranians protest of the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.“Without Twitter, the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy,” wrote a spokesman under the George W. bush. Social Media was being praised for it way of better the ways of global politics but this was long ago. The reading argues on whether or not social media is still a good in todays climate with the author L. M. Sacasas saying how “that social media platforms have had a corrupting influence on public discourse”. It seems the overall argument is whether or not social media is the new main way communication and whether or not its leaving a positive impact or not. I myself think social media greatly supports a public sphere as it gives opportunities of communication where otherwise we wouldnt have without it. Its easy not to get in touch with people and for them to get in touch with you but do take note on the information you share may be shared for unethical reasons to corporations and also the political aspect of it with the spread of news whether true or not. My Keyword “Event” can relate to this as an event consists of some occurence on the ground and related narrative of an event( Sonnevend, 111). Events such as the iranian protest of the re elelction of a political leader. Public spheres are all about the commuincation and with it taking place in a digital space the amount of disscussion that can be contributed from people around the world on a certain topic or “event” is unimaginable. The 2016 election is the greatest example of the public sphere within a digital space such as with platforms as twitter being used as a means to influence voters on who to vote for. The event aspect can be whats trending as I remember when a presidential debate was happening, it would be trending #1 on Twitter.