very interesting, mini public spheres cropping up as a result of personal media, and how they may differ. my question regarding these: possible to map? how can they connect, become fluid, and, negatively, how 'virtual' is this space as 'conversation' - detached, in a sense, from place, except, dividual space/Mitchell's networked cyborg-type.<br>
molly<br><br><br><br><br><Jan wrote:><br><br>One, if not the main disruption digital media bring about is the<br>
emergence of a new type of public sphere - thus the reference to<br>
Habermas in my subject line - by lowering technological barriers to make<br>
information or content available.<br>
Tools like (micro-)blogs, social network sites, video platforms etc.<br>
afford the emergence of "personal public spheres" (or "persoenliche<br>
Oeffentlichkeiten" in German). These can be best understood by<br>
contrasting them with "traditional" public spheres produced by<br>
professional journalism; personal public spheres are formed when and where<br>
<br>
a) users make available information that is personally relevant to them<br>
(instead of the information being selected according to journalistic<br>
news factors or news values),<br>
<br>
b) that is directed to an intended audience of strong and weak ties<br>
(instead of the disperse, unconnected, and unknown audience of<br>
mass-mediated public spheres),<br>
<br>
c) and that is presented mainly to engage in conversation (instead of<br>
the one-way mode of publishing).<br>
<br>
Some elements of this development have been described in other concepts<br>
or theories as well. E.g., Axel Bruns' idea of "produsage" also<br>
emphasizes the idea that the boundaries between "producer" and "user"<br>
are blurring - he is giving lots of examples from different fields; I'm<br>
focussing here on the blurring boundaries between "senders" and<br>
"receivers" - within personal publics, users are both, since they are<br>
constantly "sending" information (e.g. by updating their Facebook Status<br>
or tweeting) to their social network as well as receiving information<br>
which is filtered through their social graph.<br><br><br>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>******************************<br>Molly Hankwitz, Ph.D.<br>Media and communications discipline<br>Queensland University of Technology<br>UC Davis Technocultural Studies, Lecturer<br>Design and Industry, SFSU<br>
****<br><a href="http://www.othercinema.com/" target="_blank">http://www.othercinema.com</a>, Editor<br><a href="http://newmediafix.net" target="_blank">http://newmediafix.net</a>, Contributing editor<br><br>******************************<br>
<br><br>