MAC 325 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: The Digital Age, Yochai Benkler, Robert D. Putnam
26 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 4-2 Benkler: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets
and Freedoms Class 2/22/18
● The Networked Public Sphere
○ Some scholars say people aren’t participating in civil engagement
■ Blame young people, media/mass communication, and technology
○ Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
■ Decline of community involvement
○ People have always been concerned about “good citizenship”
● Civic engagement is changing
○ Digital media enables new expressions of citizenship
○ Benkler
■ The digital age is good for the public sphere because everyone can have
a voice
○ Civic engagement’s form is changing but the influential people may remain the
same
● The public sphere
○ “A network for communicating information and points of view… which, in the
process of communicating this information bundles them into topically specified
public opinion.” -Benkler
○ Publics are an imagined community of individuals who share common interest in
solving a problem in the public sphere
■ Exert pressure via circulation of information
■ Influence other publics
○ The private sphere: the home, only business of those who are immediately
involved
● Desirable characteristics for a functional public sphere
○ 1. Uptake
■ What information gets into the public sphere, who is allowed to have a
voice
■ Mass media: media cost means few empowered agents get to choose
what information is circulated
● Corporate, government
○ 2. Filtering
■ For relevance and credibility
■ Mass media: more gatekeepers; professionals
■ Digital: gatekeeping is social rather than professional
● Social filtering
● Algorithmic filtering
○ Choices built into certain web platforms as to what gets
displayed
○ 3. Synthesis of public opinion
■ Mass media: passive activity...choices made by higher-ups over what
does and doesn’t get covered
Document Summary
Week 4-2 benkler: the wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedoms class 2/22/18. Some scholars say people aren"t participating in civil engagement. Blame young people, media/mass communication, and technology. People have always been concerned about good citizenship . Digital media enables new expressions of citizenship. The digital age is good for the public sphere because everyone can have a voice. Civic engagement"s form is changing but the influential people may remain the same. A network for communicating information and points of view which, in the process of communicating this information bundles them into topically specified public opinion. -benkler. Publics are an imagined community of individuals who share common interest in solving a problem in the public sphere. The private sphere: the home, only business of those who are immediately involved. Desirable characteristics for a functional public sphere. What information gets into the public sphere, who is allowed to have a voice.
