Week 06 - Speaking & Listening

Papacharissi (2002) argues that although the internet is not a public sphere, it serves as a new public space which has the potential to evolve into a public sphere. One of the reasons it can’t be acknowledged as a public sphere for democracy is that only a small percentage of the world own computers and can access the internet. This group of people are more likely to come from an educated and privileged background as it is the richer countries in the world that have the highest levels of internet access (p. 14). This point brings us back to the origins of democracy in ancient Athens where “only adult male Athenians who were the legitimate offspring of lawfully married Athenian parents were eligible for citizenship” (Jones 2008, p. 34). This original Athenian system excluded minors (persons under 20 years of age), women, foreigners and slaves from citizenship and therefore any democratic rights (Jones 2008, p.34). Still now, in Australia, there are many people prohibited to take part in the democratic process: minors (persons under 18 years of age), those of an “unsound mind”, and those with criminal records or anyone that does not hold an Australian citizenship (AEC 2011).

Papacharissi poses the question, “how do we recreate something online, when it never really existed offline?” (p. 20). This makes us reflect on whether we believe the internet will take a new democratic shape of its own, or if it will just mirror what we have already created offline (p. 21).

Personally, I found Papacharissi’s reading tedious. The overall message conveyed was interesting but I found myself becoming confused in the repetition.

Papacharissi’s reading did lead me to think of the Italian movie I cento passi (2000). It is based on the true story of a young activist, Peppino Impastato, who lived in Sicily in the seventies -a time when the mafia dictated the laws. Impastato became frustrated watching his people cower under the rule of the mafia and decided to speak out against it. He created a public space, a small local radio station, where he could publically expose the Mafia crimes in his area and encourage others to come forward. Unfortunately for Impastato, no-one (including politicians) would acknowledge the existence of the mafia and he was kidnapped and killed by the mafia for his political efforts.

This makes me question the real freedom of democracy. Sure, people aren’t killed in Australia for speaking out against organisations or politicians, but I wonder if their voices are really heard? It seems that to make a difference in the political system, you need to have monetary backing and know the right people. Can we say that there are levels of democracy? Or if we resort to looking at democracy in levels, does it even count as democracy?

I find it hard to believe that a refugee or a person of ‘unsound mind’ would agree with the term ‘democracy’.

References

Australian Electoral Commission 2011, ‘Enrolment Eligibility’, Australian Government, viewed 4 April 2011, <http://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Eligibility.htm>.

I Cento Passi 2000, motion picture, Mosca, F., Sicily, Italy.

Jones, N.F. 2008, Politics and Society in Ancient Greece, Greenwood Publishing Group, Connecticut, USA.

Papacharissi, Z. 2002, The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere, New Media and Society, Vol 4, No. 1, pp. 9-27.