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Custom European Union Public Sphere Essay
1. Can we talk about a European Public Sphere or, should we talk about European public spheres?
a) What is European Public Sphere?
It could be said that European public Sphere have existed for centuries, long before the establishment of the European community, European Union and its institutions. Beginning from the seventeenth century the ideas of European civilizations where the object of deliberation across Europe and elite public sphere emerged in the eighteenth century together with churches, courts and academia. In the 19th and 20th century the public spheres of Europe expanded and were more integrated than ever before. ( Schulz- Forberg 2003)
Definition of “public sphere” is usually connected with name of Jurgen Habermas. Being a student of the Frankfurt School of Social Research, Habermas wrote “The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere” (1962). The purpose was to explore the status of public opinion in the practice of representative government in Western Europe. Habermas defined the public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space. In its ideal form, the public sphere is made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state. ( Habermas, 1991)
Habermas made a distinction between lifeworld and system. The public sphere is an extension of the lifeworld in many respects; system refers to the market economy and the state apparatus. Basically, public sphere emerged in the 18th century together with the appearance of literary societies, voluntary associations, with the growth of press. However, nowadays a public sphere is mostly commonly referred as a space for deliberation, discussion and engagement in societal issues. The term “public sphere” had caused a long debate about the appropriate definition and the notion of the public sphere has been criticized. Implicitly the term refers to events that are open and accessible to all. It has a meaning of making something public or discussing something in public, but there are constraints and limits to any version of a public sphere which is typically not open and accessible to all.
European Union Public Sphere
A European public sphere is considered to be an important factor for social and political European integration, especially for its democratic quality, and is also understood as a space of communication between political and private sectors. A European public sphere should assure information flows, opinion formation, public control over politics and social integration. As it has been mentioned above, Habermas’ work had inspired many scholars, his ideas have been applied to developments in Europe and in relation to European integration in particular. But, his
Writings initially do not concern issues of trans-nationality or international perspectives, but all take their starting point in the rather confined and homogeneous nation state. As to the functions of the European Public Sphere, the following should be mentioned: it is a space for all social groups and opinions, it is a space for voicing and debating, where opinions and policies are made visible, a space where power holders are discussed and so on. It should be mentioned as well, that media play an important role in the public sphere. Media content can reflect public opinion and be directed at polities and the actions of a system. The media traditionally have been taken as the best expression of the public sphere. Mass media enable public communication as speakers are unable to reach their audience and democratic political entities need mechanisms to link the political arenas.( Trenz, 2004). However, the media are important for all sorts of manifestations of the public sphere. Public sphere is a mutual observation of citizens, interest groups, policy makers and pre-existing collective identity. There is no reason why people should all speak the same language and all use the same media in order to communicate across national borders. Agreement about European policies across boundaries, ideology and other cleavages can serve as a proof of the existence of a European public sphere.
European Union Public Sphere
b) European public sphere or spheres? ; European public sphere components.
The emergence of a European public sphere caused controversy and skepticism. Many scholars point out that the rules of national public sphere differ across the boundaries. A sociological principle of group identity may be applied to prove the existence of European public sphere. Despite the fact that different nations have different customs and traditions, when people talk about Europe, they are more tolerant with each other’s customs, culture and even religion in order to communicate effectively, they then have motivations to establish a community of communication across borders. Thus, the European public sphere emerges in the form of interconnection between various national public spheres at present stage.( Watson, 2000).
According to Habermas’ theory, the public sphere is a common space in society, but at the same time it is divided into different types and categories. It consists of various forums, groups and meeting-places where the citizens can gather. It is a highly complex network of various segments which stretches across different levels. There are municipal, regional, national and international public spheres. There public spheres in the form of street gatherings and in the form of professional public spheres. There may be anonymous public spheres made possible by the new electronic technologies ( internet). European identity and European consciousness is not the new concept. People, who live in the same continent, experience the same. Nowadays, European people are extremely close with each other in the integration process of European Union. European identity at this stage is to search for a refreshed true integrated identity that everyone is a part of European empire and not just French or Spanish. European Union is multinational organization which consists of nations, but independent of them at the same time. That is why European identity can only be shaped on the basis of transnational communication.
European Union Public Sphere
c) A European Media.
Media, with its inflexibility, transformation and information prove itself the most suitable and powerful European public sphere. In general, "media" refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies. In the computer world, "media" is also used as a collective noun, but refers to different types of data storage options. There are different kinds of media: advertising, electronic, digital, multimedia, print, published, mass, broadcast, news, recording and media plus ( European Union programme).
In the case of Europe, language obstacles make national media difficult to penetrate the borders. A transnational European public sphere can be built on the basis of the various national publics and media. Media communication in the public sphere means that speakers talk to each other and to their audiences rather then simply voicing utterances. As a result, speakers in the public sphere should recognize each other as legitimate participants in a debate, they might disagree, but they have to take each other’s statements seriously. This does not imply a deep sense of loyalty towards each other, but some sense of belonging to the same community. European media requires that speakers in the sphere adopt a European rather than national perspective.(Trenz, 2004). The big problem of forging European identity among European citizens is long distance. Media is an effective way to the diminish distance. Media is powerful tool to keep thee European citizens close to European Union and to cultivate European consciousness and attachment to Europe. Accepting other Europeans as legitimate speakers in a public media is very important. Despite the fact, that they communicate in different languages, they talk about the same event, because their country is part of European Union.
European Union Public Sphere
Media Plus program is European Union program designed to support the European Union’s audio-visual industry. Media Plus supports the development, distribution and promotion of European audio-visual works. The sectors concerned are: fiction ( cinema and television), the production of documentaries, animation and multi-media. The next generation Media Plus program began in 2007 and will last until 2013. Membership of the Media Plus program consists of: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain and others.
As to the citizens themselves, their knowledge of the European Union is derived largely from the mass media. Majority of the European Union population believe that media coverage of the European Union in their country is quite fair. When asked how they might wish to receive information about the European Union, there is strong desire that information be made available through the main mass media, rather than either through direct printed information provision or through electronic means. The population of the European Union does not see the Internet as a major source of information on political life. The population is relatively satisfied with the coverage in the media. When asked which media they prefer for European Union information, they tend to choose standard mass media that have long provided political information. The belief that the media that one consumes constitute a fair reporting of events and opinions is not a particularly persuasive measure of the reality of media performance. To say that the source of information is reliable or unreliable is to make a claim that one cannot possibly sustain. Moreover, it is often claimed, that it is only the elite press that engage in any European discourse, and therefore the majority of the population, are effectively excluded from serious engagement with the issues. The popular printed press does differ from the more serious press. There is a need of universalist representation of the issues in a European public sphere, and the problem is that some of the existing media systems are still nationalistic. ( Eriksen, 2005)
European Union Public Sphere
2. What might help the formation of a truly European public sphere?
The formation of the European Public Sphere depends on the active participation of speakers, the media and audience. In a democratic society everyone is free to deliberate with whom and about what you want. The creation of a truly European Public Sphere would be the basis of a genuine European democracy, independent of the legal basis of the Union. The lack of communicative links between national and European discussion threads and the lack of shared background knowledge, both across national borders and across groups on the European level, is impeding its emergence. Traditional media cannot really contribute to a development that overcomes the divide of different national public spheres. Their closed presentation of news usually does not present the facts and backgrounds, and they do not invite to participate in the debates around a particular topic. ( Eriksen, 2005)
The public sphere described by Habermas is an ideal. It helps us to understand the conditions of the society’s discourse. The emergence of the Internet established new hopes for renewing public sphere. In developed countries, the Internet is thought to benefit economic productivity, health, education and democracy. Now, Internet newsgroups and other virtual communities are being promoted as public spheres that will renew democracy in the 21st century. But, these attributes will powerfully affect the politics that emerge in our digital era. To understand how our notion of democracy will change we need to understand how the Internet differs from historical public spheres. There are obstacles that limit internet’s potential in the public sphere domain. It should be mentioned, that the Internet is not available to all social groups and online political discourse is often fragmented despite accommodating contributions from people around the world. ( Dean, 2003) Furthermore, technologies may adapt to the current political culture rather than creating a new one. The Internet is said to be an instrument of the capitalist era that rests on commercial values.
European Union Public Sphere
For the constitution of a European public sphere it is not enough that the public become more interested in, and identifies itself more with Europe. All the interest groups and other civil society groups as well as politicians have to be interested in reaching the public through the mass media. The main problem with the development of a European public sphere is held to be the lack of cultural substrate required for collective will formation. Increasing the visibility of European Union news, boosting the presence of European Union level actors or increasing the number of cross-references across European Union countries in such a system can therefore only be achieved indirectly. To increase visibility and debate, European Union politics must be politically more relevant. This places the responsibility on the side of politics and only in a second place by on the one hand ensuring that editors and journalists are sufficiently aware of and trained to cover European issues and on the other hand by feeding the media with information that fit the formats of different media and outlets. Nevertheless, the efforts are necessary to create a general news and information environment. ( Eriksen, 2005). Recently European integration has made great progress. Yet this progress came at the price of a growing democratic deficit, as many critics highlighted. The main charges were that European decision-making was not transparent, information for the general public was scarce, and the opportunities for citizen's participation were lacking, while at the same time the influence of the European Union on people's everyday lives was constantly growing. Therefore, a major aspect of the European Union's democratic deficit can be attributed to the lack of a public sphere, for it is the role of a public sphere to inform the citizens, to ensure scrutiny and to act as a forum for civic participation.
