A Critical Analysis of the Public Sphere in the Digital Age: The Case of the Petrocaribe Challenge Movement

Year 2021, Issue: 8, 90 - 107, 14.10.2021

Marc-henry Pıerre Mehmet Güzel

https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2021.4.8.139

Abstract

While studies that address the relationship between social media and social movements generally use the functionalist paradigm, the critical analysis of the public sphere in the era of distributed media emphasizes the importance of political economy and political communication. Based on the critical political economy analysis of distributed media, this study examined the Twitter-mediated protest "Petrocaribe Challenge" in relation to a possible political public sphere in Haiti. To this end, a qualitative method based on critical discourse analysis was used in the study. Also, 163 tweets purposely selected by the researchers were analyzed. The research findings showed that the Twitter-mediated Petrocaribe Challenge is a political protest with no leadership and a significant lack of online engagement and communication. Besides, the study found that in a political sphere characterized by extreme social inequalities, universal participation is crucial to the formation of a critical public sphere. Although most educated people in Haiti use social media, the majority of Haitians do not have access to these online platforms, which goes against the principles of the public sphere. While the findings of the present study do not allow for generalization, they make up a significant contribution to the critical analysis of social media as a public sphere

Keywords

Petrocaribe challenge, digital media, the public sphere, political communication, political economy

Dijital Çağda Kamusal Alanın Eleştirel Bir Analizi: Petrocaribe Challenge Hareketi Ӧrneği

Abstract

Sosyal medya ve toplumsal hareketler arasındaki ilişkiyi ele alan araştırmalar genellikle işlevselci paradigmayı kullanırken, dağıtık medya döneminde kamusal alanın eleştirel analizi, ekonomi politiğin ve siyasi iletişimin önemini vurgulamaktadır. Dağıtık medyanın eleştirel ekonomi politik analizinden yola çıkan bu çalışma, Twitter merkezli bir protesto olan “Petrocaribe Challenge”ı Haiti'deki olası bir siyasal kamusal alanla ilişkili olarak analiz etmiştir. Bu amaçla çalışmada, eleştirel söylem analizine dayanan nitel bir yöntem kullanılmıştır. Araştırmacılar tarafından amaçlı olarak seçilen 163 tweet analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma bulguları, Twitter tabanlı Petrocaribe Challenge'ın, liderlikten yoksun, önemli bir katılım ve iletişim eksikliği olan politik bir protesto olduğunu göstermiştir. Ayrıca, çalışma aşırı sosyal eşitsizliklerle karakterize edilen politik bir alanda, evrensel katılımın kritik bir kamusal alanın oluşturulması için çok önemli olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Haiti'de çoğunlukla eğitimli insanlar sosyal medyaya erişirken, bu durum çevrimiçi etkileşimlerin kamusal alan ilkelerine aykırı bir biçimde nüfusun çoğunluğunun dışarıda kaldığını göstermektedir. Bu çalışmanın, Haiti’deki siyasal kamusal alana dair bulgulardan yola çıkarak makro genellemelere imkan vermese de sosyal medyanın kamusal bir alan olarak eleştirel analizine anlamlı bir katkı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir.

Keywords

Petrocaribe challenge, dijital medya, kamusal alan, siyasal iletişim, ekonomi politik

References

• Adamoli, G. C. E. (2012). Social media and social movements: A critical analysis of audience's use of Facebook to advocate food activism offline (Doctoral dissertation, Florida State University, Florida). Retrieved from: http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A183217
• Adorno, Th. W. (1964). L’industrie culturelle. Communications, 3 (3), 12-18.
• Berelson, B. (1952). Content Analysis in Communication Research. Michigan: Free Press
• Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social science research: Principles, methods, and practices. Tampa: University of South Florida.
• Cardon, D. et Granjon, F. (2010). Médiactivistes. Paris: Les Presses de Sciences Po.
• Castor, S. (1988). L’occupation américaine d’Haïti. Port-au-Prince: CRESFED.
• Charaudeau, P. (2005). Le discours politique. Les masques du pouvoir. Paris : Vuibert.
• Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Boston, MA : Pearson.
• Dahlber-Grundberg, M. (2016). Digital media and the transnationalization of protests (Doctoral dissertation, Umea University, Sweden). Retrieved from : https://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:895571/FULLTEXT01.pdf
• Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: A critical introduction. London: SAGE
• Gonzáles, L. A. G. (2016). New social movements and social networking sites’ uses: Mexicans’ mobilization for peace in Mexico (Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham). Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/46664584.pdf
• Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• HABERMAS, J. (1997). L’espace public : Archéologie de la publicité comme dimension constitutive de la société bourgeoise. Traduit de l’allemand par Marc Buhot de Launey, Paris: Payot.
• Habermas, J. (2006). Political communication in media and society: Does democracy still enjoy an epistemic dimension? The impact of normative theory on empirical research. Communication Theory, 16, 411-426. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2006.00280.x
• Herman, E. S. and Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent. The political economy of the mass media. New-York: Pantheon Books. Retrieved from: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/Marx_Contribution_to_the_Critique_of_Political_Economy.pdf
• Johannessen, M. R. (2012). Social media as public sphere. An exploratory study of online political communication in Norway (Doctoral dissertation, Universit of Adger, Kristiansand). Retrieved from: https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/handle/11250/139746
• Kaplan, A.M. (2014). Socıal media, definition and history. In Alhaji R., Rokne J. (Eds) Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining. New-York: Springer.
• Laflamme, S. et Lafortune, S. (2006). Utilisation d’Internet et relations sociales. Communication, 24(2). Retrieved from: http://communication.revues.org/3395 Marx, K. (1999). A contribution to the critique of political economy. Transcribed for the Internet by Tim Delaney. Retrieved from Miège, B. (2004). L’économie politique de la communication. Hermès, La Revue, 1(38), 46-54.
• Mosco, V. (2009). The political economy of communication. London: SAGE.
• Pierre-Louis, L. R. (2012). Communication et espace public. Une reconstruction à travers l’espace public politique haïtien. Louvan-la-Neuve. Presses Universitaires de Louvain.
• Smythe, D. W. (1997). Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism. Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, 1(3), 1-27.
• Trouillot, M-R. (1986). Les racines historiques de l’État duvaliérien. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps.
• Van Dijk, T. A. (1993. Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4 (2), 249-283.
• Wittel, A. (2012). Digital Marx: Toward a political economy of distributed media. TripleC, 10(2), 313-333.