[csaa-forum] Jostein Gripsrud - 'What is New About New Media?' and ' ‘The Blindspot of Public Sphere Theory', Media at Sydney Seminar, 9th and 10th Sept

[Madeleine King]

*Media at Sydney presents:*

*Monday, 9th Sept: *

*‘What is New about New Media?’*

*and*

*Tuesday, 10th Sept:  *

*‘The Blindspot of Public Sphere Theory: The Role of Expressive Culture’*

*(co-hosted by the Institute of Democracy and Human Rights, with Dr. Peter
Chen)*

* *

*By Professor Jostein Gripsrud (Department of Information Science and Media
Studies, University of Bergen)*

* *

*‘What is New about New Media?’*

The digitalization of new media and especially the introduction and
developments of the Internet have been accompanied by a host of attempts to
understand the implications of these innovations in social, cultural,
political and economic terms. Some of them are of an academic or scholarly
nature, others more journalistic or business oriented. The majority of
contributions in both categories have, firstly, argued for the radicalness
of the changes digital communication technologies represent, often
proclaiming that other media, such as television, are facing an imminent
death and that (global) society is entering a totally new historical stage.
Secondly, they have also tended to estimate the impact of digitalization
very optimistically as a historical leap in terms of democratization,
freedom and egalitarian values. The challenge for a more critical appraisal
of digitalization is to balance these discourses with some cooler
theoretical, historical and empirical perspectives without denying the
obvious and impressive gains and potentials of the new media and
communicative forms. On place to start is the discussion of technological
determinism, e.g. in Raymond Williams’ *Television: Technology and Cultural
Form* and various contributions to debates on the work of Harold Innis and
Marshall McLuhan. As for historical perspectives, the transitions from
theatre to film and then television as the most popular medium of dramatic
entertainment is worth looking at when talking about the death of older
media as new ones arrive. In this presentation, however, the emphasis will
be on the implications of digitalization for the structures and processes
of the public sphere on the one hand and for socio-cultural stratification
more generally on the other.

* *

*Details: *

*Date: 9th September *

*Time: 2-4 pm*

*Location:  New Law Seminar Rm. 105, **New Law Building
(F10)*<http://sydney.edu.au/law/about/campus.shtml>,
University of Sydney

* *

*                            *

* ‘The Blindspot of Public Sphere Theory: The Role of Expressive Culture’*

Theoretical work on the public sphere has almost completely concentrated on
the political part of it. Even book-length contributions where “culture” is
in the title have not dealt with the role of expressive culture and
discourses about and around that, but been about culture in the
anthropological or ethnological sense. This is lamentable not only because
the literary or cultural public sphere was the very beginning of the modern
public sphere, but also because today’s actually existing public spheres
are marked by quite obvious close relations between expressive culture and
a variety of key democratic functions.

This presentation will discuss the implications of and possible remedies
for this weakness in public sphere theory and point to historical and
current examples of how expressive culture has politically relevant impacts
and implications that need to be addressed. Expressive culture is evidently
involved in a variety of ways in public discourses dealing with this
situation, contributing to understandings of it and promoting political
attitudes and actions. On the other hand, the cultural public sphere also
offers possibilities for a retreat from politics and socio-cultural
engagement, where differences in terms of engagement vs retreat are
structured along lines of already established social divisions.**

* *

*Date: 10th September *

*Time: *12:30 – 2pm

*Location: *Woolley Common Room, Level 4, John Woolley Building
(A20)<http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?ref=d08h15>,
University of Sydney

* *

*Jostein Gripsrud is Professor of Media Studies at the University of
Bergen, Norway.  He has published extensively on a variety of topics in
media and cultural studies. On television, he has published *The Dynasty
Years: Hollywood Television* and *Critical Media Studies* (Routledge, 1995)
and a number of articles, some of which have appeared in anthologies he
edited or co-edited: *Television and Common Knowledge* (Routledge,
1999), *Media,
Markets & Public Spheres: European Media at the Crossroads* (Intellect,
2010) and *Relocating Television: Television in the Digital Context
*(Routledge,
2010).  He has also co-published articles on cultural sociology  (e.g.
“Changing Relations: Class, education and cultural capital” , in *Poetics*,
vol 39 (2011), pp 507-529) and published articles as well as co-edited and
contributed to anthologies on public sphere theory: *The Idea of the Public
Sphere* (Lexington Books, 2010) and *The Public Sphere vol I-IV* (Sage,
2011)*



*Media at Sydney is presented by the Department of Media and Communications,
University of Sydney *

All seminars will be held on the University of Sydney Camperdown campus

For more information contact Dr Fiona Martin

T: 0428391122 or 02 90365098

E: fiona.martin at sydney.edu.au

M: 0428 391 122

RSVPs to Madeleine King e: maddyking22 at gmail.com
<mkin5545 at uni.sydney.edu.au>

http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/

* *
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