Internet response to communicative deficit

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Berthoux
Pierre
15184927


Media and Globalization
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Choose one of the weekly key readings. Using the library academic journal database, find a journal article published since 2010 that engages with a similar social/political theme where the role of media is examined. Compare and contrast how the two articles make arguments for the social and political significance of particular dimensions of media.


"Does participation in democratic procedures have only the functional meaning of silencing a defeated minority, or does it have the deliberative meaning of including the arguments of citizens in the democratic process of opinion- and will-formation? ... Democracy depends on the belief of the people that there is some scope left for collectively shaping a challenging future.".
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher born in 1929 well-known for his critical theory and pragmatism. Associated to the Frankfurt School, the most popular works he made concerned communicative rationality and the public sphere, such as in Theory of Communicative Action (1984) and in Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989). In those books, Habermas developed important concepts: the system/lifeworld dichotomy, the colonization of communicative action so as to emphasize the communicative deficit upon society. Indeed, Habermas seems to be relevant to analyze the New Social Movements emerging from Internet because most of them have in common to protest the lack of spaces within mass media allowing them to speak out. But does Internet provide an efficient public sphere in response to the communicative deficit?
The Internet Revolution had a great impact upon society and for a better understanding of its complex effects, it is important to emphasize the theoretical opposition between technological and social determinism. On one hand, technological determinism presumes that technology is shaping the social structure and its culture values. On the other hand, social determinism perceives technology as a result of the society in which it is developed. However in this work, we would rather prefer a hybrid approach of technology such as in the Actor-Network theory. Furthermore, Actor Network theory was originally developed by Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, John Law and Madeleine Akrich so as to understand science and technology processes through a general social theory. This new approach is revolutionary because it proposes a third alternative to the long-standing debate between technological determinism and social constructionism: a hybrid model where none of the technological or the social is privileged.
To address this issue, two works have been chosen: Firstly, Democracy, Social Movement, and the Internet: A Habermasian analysis from Lee Salter because he raises the question of Internet as a possible response to the habermasian communicative deficit. Secondly, Alternative Media and Social Networking Sites: The Politics of Individuation and Political Participation from Natalie Fenton and Veronica Barassi to demonstrate the emergence of new forms of communication, despite the negative effect of individuation of political engagement through social networking.
Finally, reference will be made to the French movement Nuit Debout which is obviously concerned by the communicative deficit (considering mass media as anti-democratic) but also in their singular way of using Internet and social networking so as to mobilize and produce, organize collective action.
Lee Salter - Internet as a possible response to the habermasian communicative deficit
Habermas developed his system / lifeworld dichotomy to revisit the link between the public sphere and the government. On one hand, the lifeworld is built of communicative rationality through face to face contacts (common understandings including values, in various social groups). On another hand, the system is based upon instrumental rationality, considered as "parasitic" because it is not made of human communication such as in the lifeworld ("original" mode of language). Then, Habermas exposes one condition of legitimacy crisis: the colonization of communicative action in which systems, constrained by systemic imperatives, are structuring areas of life and creating a form of dominance, disempowering the perspective of consensus within the lifeworld. Moreover, he especially argues that the media of power and money "encode a purposive rational attitude" and "the lifeworld is no longer needed for the coordination of action". Citizen's role in a colonized society has become "neutralized". Therefore, in this center/periphery theory, Habermas points out that the public sphere must be separated from systemic imperatives and be made of "non-governmental and non-economic connections and voluntary associations..", enabling problems of private sphere to become amplified in the public sphere. That is why Lee Salter hypothesizes the fact that Internet may have facilitated this mechanism and could currently represent itself as an autonomous medium capable of giving power back to periphery. In other words, Internet may solve the problem of communicative deficit and provide an alternative to mass media (which Habermas defined as anti-democratic and "duping the public into accepting manufactured opinion as their own"). Furthermore, Internet is playing a central role on multidirectional communication and cooperative activity. Joseph Licklider, former head of the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, declares that "digital computer organization can improve the effectiveness of communication among people so much as perhaps to revolutionize it". Indeed, New Social Movements (NSMs) have engaged political uses of Internet to support external activity and to influence policy. Internet became the support of communicative rationality to strengthen the lifeworld's voice. It enabled social movements to communicate to broadcast information and to stimulate debate by allowing feedback and response: Internet is the new medium for civil society or in other terms, it represents a "supporting foundation upon which public spheres can be built". However, Salter is also saying that Internet is not predetermined (by technological or social determinism) and it could also become another colonized mass medium "providing standardized information and discussion, limited interactivity". It is up to citizens from the lifeworld to protect this medium and ensure it remains a new form of political expression. Indeed Lee Salter specifies that it is wrong to state that "a new technology has some necessary impact upon society". Indeed, this impact is really diverse and societies, groups interact with technology before and after the design process, by shaping, modifying it and adapting it to their objectives. This is a clear critique of technological determinism defended by Martin Heidegger or Marshall Mc Luhan in which technology is driving the way society is working. But, it is also wrong to pretend that technology has no intrinsic qualities. Social determinism at the opposite is also inaccurate. Salter rather prefers to lead us closer to an Actor-Network theory by stating: "a cautious balance must be held between the transformative capacities of a technology on the one hand, and the capacity of social agents to utilize technologies, and shape them in their use, on the other hand".
Natalie Fenton, Veronica Barassi – New practices and effects induced by self-centered media production
In their work called Alternative media and social networking sites: the politics of individuation and political participation, the authors emphasize the new forms of political participation, democratic engagement and mass mobilization, directly emerging from Internet. Manuel Castells calls it "a new creative autonomy", Saskia Sassen a "mediated sociality" and Bernard Stiegler "power of collective individuation" favoring the growth of grassroots movements to promote social change. As a first step, Castells considers that social networking sites allow the emergence of new political and creative opportunities for democratic engagement and mass collaboration. And at the same time, it provides an individual autonomy for society. Thus, Web 2.0 technologies offer a possibility of political transformations and social change embedded by the connection of individual participation to wider movements. Thereupon, many researchers have proven that social networking have facilitated the emergence of grassroots movements and boosted public engagement in electoral campaigns. Castells in Networks of Outrage and Hope analyzes different social movements such as in Iceland and in Middle East following the Arab Spring like in Tunisia or Egypt. He also includes the 15-M movement in Spain and Occupy Wall Street. Concerning the latter, which "was born digital", its call was spread by different blogs such as Adbusters, AmpedStatus and Anonymous, posting on Facebook and spreading the movement by the hashtag #occupywallstreet on Twitter. The protesters used social media as a tool to inform and constantly distribute photos, videos, live streams at real-time. Thus, these networks were facilitating the organization and outcome of the movement. Castells adds that the occupiers created a new organizational model of direct democracy. A hybrid model between digital and face-to-face communication. As a second step, Stiegler points out the emergence of "socio-technological modes of mediations" that can allow a formation of social groups by a process of individuation within society. To understand this theoretical approach, it is necessary to understand his distinction made between mass media and social media. On one hand, mass media and advertising are provoking a phenomena of disindividuation, preventing individuals from speaking out. On the other hand, social media empowers collective individuation by providing spaces of digital singularity and it can lead to radical and creative alternatives. This is what Castells would call "creative autonomy" operated by the "mass communication of the self". Nonetheless, Fenton and Barassi also point out the fact that this emergence of self-centered participation with social media may represent a threat for political groups, rather than an opportunity. This phenomena is challenging rather than reinforcing the collective creativity of social movements. Indeed, the mass-self communication inducted by social networking is limited because: anyone can upload a video, write a blog, create an online petition… and not all the information are visible at the same degree. Moreover, there is a relocation of political interests from public to private sphere. This is what Sennett is exposing in 1974 with his concept of "dead public space" in which public space is visible but no longer collective. So it will remain a network of singular acts of self-organizing production. For his part, Hindman states that traditional and mainstream media remain dominants: "Mainstream news and information sites still attract the most traffic just as certain celebrities and elites generate the largest networks". Indeed, the "creative autonomy" is limited by the neoliberal context, fragmentizing and individualizing responses made by ego-centered needs. Castells would add that citizens are far from being autonomous from capital because the exchange contexts on Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat… are sold to advertisers so as to achieve, in the long term, a commodification of users activity.
Therefore, these new practices enhanced by social networking have an effect of liberating the user (which is also now a creator of content) but not necessarily an effect of democratizing the society. Bruce Bimber notes that Internet "contribute toward greater fragmentation and pluralism in the structure of civic engagement" but it also has a tendency to "deinstitutionalize politics, fragment communication and accelerate the pace of the public agenda and decision-making may undermine the coherence of the public sphere". Furthermore, this lack of coherence is one of the aspect often enhanced to criticize the French movement Nuit Debout, seen as too much heterogeneous. And thanks to an ethnographic research of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC), Barassi and Fenton proved the necessity of a collective ethos for a group "to provide a framework to its practice". Despite few internal tensions, New Social Movements must require a collective image through alternative media production, suppressing individual voices and raising enough visibility to be heard.

Nuit Debout – Singular phenomena leading to socio-political change ?

Nuit Debout is a French social movement launched on the March 31st 2016 following the neoliberal labour reform called "El Khomri law". Since that day, thousands of French people meet every day to discuss on the famous square "Place de la Republique" but also in other cities such as Toulouse, Lyon, Rennes, Nantes and even in nearby towns like Brussels. The movement is often referenced to Occupy Wall Street in New York led in September 2011, the 15-M movement in May 2011 or also the Indignados. What is in common to all these movements is certainly first the willingness to demonstrate a dissatisfaction concerning the current representative system in which the people is not able to make its voice heard. From parents with babies to workers, students, artists, pensioners, health professionals, all these groups are protesting against Hollande's governement and sharing the idea that the people is not enough consulted, especially concerning austerity measures. However, in view of the multiplicity of actors involved, it is obvious to note a clear lack of a real ethos, identity. In fact, some specialists are qualifying this movement as punctual and unable to achieve a proper social change. Historical reference has often be made to May 68: cultural, social and moral turning point in France and challenging the values of the broader society. Sharing some revolutionary aspects, this large movement allowed more freedom of speech and exposed a profound crisis of civilization. Nuit Debout would have been influenced by May 68 heritage, as a reemergence of political consciousness affiliated to an alternative left, especially among youth. However, the clear lack of ethos is often relayed by the mass media, for example by celebrities such as Véronique Genèst. Actress in a French police drama series Julie Lescaut from 1992 to 2013. She is a popular figure who notably has been decorated by the "Légion d'Honneur" by French president Jacques Chirac in 2004. But Nuit Debout raised also scepticism in some parts of Youtubers such as Franck Brusset, lamenting the number of people mobilized. And at the same time, Franck Brusset criticizes the hashtag related to Nuit Debout, #onvautmieuxqueca, arguing that it is not possible to achieve social change with Twitter. At first sight, the mass mobilization appears to be the main problem involved in New Social Movements emerging from Internet. So it is worth reflecting on Barassi and Fenton, pointing out with the negative effect of individuation of political engagement. Sophie Tissier, one of the organizers of the demonstration said on an interview from Mediapart that "a single click is not enough, we need action". It is obviously making reference to internet users that simply get involved in the movement online, without getting in the street.
Nonetheless, Nuit Debout remains singular because firstly it is self-directed with its own debate and decision procedures, its own indispensable logistic installations such as welcoming stands, food distribution, infirmary… Secondly, the movement is autonomous and without any political affiliation or program. Moreover, the main argument characterizing its ethos is based on an outcry against the representative system and a denial of the mainstream media, largely concentrated by the power of economy and finance (whose most of the channels are owned by millionaires and big companies). Thereupon, even if Nuit Debout is not supported by any political party or any figure affiliated with parties, "La Convergence des Luttes" is ensure by figureheads of pre-eminent scholars such as Vincent Lodon and editors like François Ruffin. As an alternative to the mass media, the movement would rather prefer to identify itself through its own ones such as Radio Debout and TV Debout. But also through alternative media close to the movement such as Fakir (owned by François Ruffin), Bangmag, Mediapart (Part of mass media but only funded by readers), […]
Then, it is obvious to note a form of reappropriation of the public expression through alternative media and social platforms. For example, when the Youtubers decided to create a collective video to protest against "El Khomri law", they invited people and especially workers to post video testimonials expressing their difficulties and problems they had to face at work (linked to the hashtag #onvautmieuxqueca). This kind of practice is close to what Habermas would call deliberative democracy in which the legitimacy directly comes from the collective judgment of the people. And again, it is true to affirm that Internet is providing a lot of practices and tools facilitating the exercise of a deliberative democracy (for example the new applications Periscope and Telegram).
In the light of the above, it is relevant to refer to New Media Studies. Des Freedman would explain this kind of phenomena through the prism of his paradigms: "Consensus", "Chaos", "Control" and "Contradiction". "Chaos" is making reference to the digital revolution in which power becomes "fluid" and its ideological diffusion is mediated by communication media. According to Brian Mc Nair in Cultural Chaos (2006), there is a death of "old media" and power, confused in the growth of new communication supports such as social media. "Contradiction" is the emergence of a new platform, medium of power over mainstream discourse, a "mass self-communication" through social media. Nowadays, the audiences get a better visibility in the media than it was before and it confirmed the pluralistic aspect related to "Consensus". Thus this chaotic system is shifting and in response, power seeks to adapt its influence ("Control") and to manage the increasing number of contradictions incurred by the digital media revolution. Freedman finally sums up: "the contradiction paradigm is needed to compensate for the misplaced optimism of pluralism, the occasional functionalism of the control paradigm, and the unwarranted celebrations of the chaos scenario".

Therefore, the Actor-Network theory seems really relevant to avoid any form of restrictive determinism and in a way to apprehend Internet, whose functions are certainly shaped by society but still made of intrinsic qualities. Internet represents an alternative to mass media and constitutes a possible response to the habermasian communicative deficit. In the same way that it is understandable to question this new form of participation called "cyberactivism", it is also true to see the emergence of new creative opportunities for democratic engagement and mass collaboration. French movement Nuit Debout remains singular and only time will tell whether it leads to proper social and political change.
Bibliography


Natalie Fenton & Veronica Barassi (2011): "Alternative Media and Social Networking Sites: The Politics of Individuation and Political Participation", The Communication Review, 14:3, 179-196

Salter, L. (2003) "New social movements and the internet: A Habermasian analysis". In: McCaughey, M. andAyers, M., eds. (2003) Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, pp. 117-144.

Bimber, B. (2000) The study of information technology and civic engagement. London, England: Routledge.

Castells M. (2012). Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge and Malden, MA:Polity press.

Castells, M. (2009). Communication power. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Freedman, D. (2015), Paradigms of Media Power. Communication, Culture & Critique, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/cccr.12081/

Hindman, M. (2009). The myth of digital democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Sassen, S. (2004). "Electronic markets and activist networks: The weight of social logics in digital formations". In R. Latham & S. Sassen (Eds.), Digital formations: New architectures for global order. Princeton University Press.

Sennett, R. (1974). The fall of public man, New York, NY: Norton.

Stiegler, B. (2006). "The disaffected individual in the process of psychic and collective disindividuation".
Retrieved from http://arsindustrialis.org/disaffectedindividual-process-psychic-and-collective-disindividuation

Guénolé T. (April 4th 2016). "Antisysteme, autogérée... Comme Mai 68, "Nuit Debout" renouvelle le militantisme de gauche, LePlus, Nouvel Obs. Retrieved from http://leplus.nouvelobs.com/contribution/1503585-antisysteme-autogeree-comme-mai-68-nuit-debout-reinvente-le-militantisme-de-gauche.html


Habermas J. (October 2010). Leadership and Leikultur, The Opinion Pages, The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/opinion/29Habermas.html?_r=0
Castells M. (2012). Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge and Malden, MA:Polity press.
Veronique Genest http://www.leprogres.fr/france-monde/2016/05/06/nuit-debout-la-colere-des-riverains-dont-veronique-genest
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