what’s a public sphere?

Public Sphere. Two words I’m sure you know, but together they seem a bit nonsensical. The concept of a public sphere was first theorised by Jurgen Habermas. Habermas wrote this book in 1962 called ‘The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere’ which I assume sums it up pretty well, but if you, like me, can’t spare the time for the 250 pages during the school week, I’ll give you the simple version we got given. A public sphere is ‘a place you can get news and debate about ideas.’- Renee Middlemost in a BCM110 lecture.

Jürgen Habermas.

Habermas saw it as similar to an 18th-century coffeehouse, as a space where you meet us and can chat about concerns. A place that isn’t involved in the economy, but more focused on deliberation instead. A great example is the TV show Q&A. A panel of people, generally experts in various fields and maybe politicians as well, sit around and answer questions the audience may be pondering about general concerning topics of the time – gender reassignment, climate change, gun law etc.

So that’s a basis of a Public Sphere, but how does Habermas’ theory translate in the 21st century? See a public sphere isn’t always a physical place, and the growing of the internet in the past few decades has definitely created more opportunities for people to create and engage in different Spheres. AskReddit, a forum on the internet site Reddit, is a public sphere I engage in personally. It revolves around the community continually posting various questions for others to weigh in on. Replies that users like, they can ‘upvote’, and yes, same for posts they don’t feel too fond of. This system means that higher rated replies are shown first, and hence the popular opinion is often obvious. Questions can be opted to have the [serious] tag, which prevents any non-serious answers. It is a closely moderated forum with a strict set of guidelines put out for all to read before posting or commenting. Anyone who has an internet connection and follows the guidelines is welcome to post or reply. In my opinion, it is an excellent version of a Public Sphere – topics that concern people are brought up and others take time to respectfully discuss or debate them.

Web-page banner for the AskReddit forum.

The media is often reflected within what people post on AskReddit and thus influences conversation. It’s a site where anyone is welcome to have a debate or discussion, reassured that they’ll be protected from abuse. Posts often lead to talk of how the media is affecting the world, and the site itself is more a tool used for reflection of media rather than a tool used by media to convey media. Definitely worth checking out if you ever have a desire to kill time, procrastinate, or just want that old, 18th-century coffeehouse feel.

Cheers,

representation and interpretation

This week’s lecture saw us looking into the world of semiotics – or the science of signs. Semiotics basically is the study of how signs are meant when conveyed and how they are seen. Another way to put this is how signs are represented and interpreted. What we learnt was that all signs, have something called a signifier, and the signified. Here’s a little visualisation of that idea.

Taken from Renee’s week four BCM110 lecture.

To relate back to our topic, we looked into how there are many different ways that media audiences will interpret certain signs or images, and what this means for media platforms. In our tutorials, we looked at a variety of complex images (mainly controversial ad campaign screenshots) and discussed how they may have been interpreted as well how they might have intended to be interpreted. We were asked to analyse a complex image of our own choosing, and comment on it effective or ineffectiveness. I chose this image from a campaign by the ‘Unhate Foundation.’

Unhate’s 2011 UNHATE campaign.


Most people would be able to recognise the figures in this photo, but they don’t realise they are interpreting just by doing so. In order for this to be an effective advertisement, that’s what the company is relying on us knowing. But that’s not necessarily always the case. From a complete outsiders perspective, the image just shows two men, dressed in suits, one of possibly Asian descent and one with light brown skin. The made-up word ‘Unhate’ is written on the top left corner of the screen. There are so many ways this image could be interpreted. For example, this might be an advertisement supporting the legalisation of gay marriage, or possibly an ad for a hairdresser, tailor, or even the local Asian grocer. In order for the image to be effective in its purpose, the audience needs to know that these two men were actually big world leaders at the time of this campaign. Go figure.


The real idea behind this campaign is one of peace and freedom. The foundation that made this poster aimed to spread the ideas and feelings of love and to express their ideology. Ideologies was another topic we discussed this past week. For those struggling to put their finger on a simple definition, as I was, here’s a simple definition we found. Ideology is the way in which we imagine the world to be. This is unique from person to person, which is one of the reasons we can interpret messages so differently – because we WANT to see different things.


So, if you want to take anything away from this, let it be this: Next time you see a piece of thought-provoking imagery, have a think about what it’s telling you. Also, think about what it wants to be telling you, but you don’t consider – because of your own pre-existing ideologies that affect how you interpret. Nothing life-changing, just a bit of food for thought.

Cheers,

being part of an active audience

One of the most gratifying experiences I’ve had has been being part of a festival audience. It weird to explain how being surrounded by thousands of sweaty drunks all screaming someone else’s song lyrics is enjoyable, but I’ll give it a crack. First, a bit of background though, let me set the scene for you.

In late December 2017, my girlfriend Jessica and I decided to go for a little month-long trip to Tasmania, to celebrate the end of school and to get away from our small country town Albury. Naturally, the New Years period is a very good time for music festivals to be held, and of course, we had planned our trip around Marion Bay’s ‘Falls Festival,’ a three-day campout with heaps of Aussie and International artists. We were pumped.

Now walking into that festival, seeing all these tents popping up like multi-coloured wildflowers in this massive expanse of farmland extending out to the ocean was truly awesome. Not the overused version of the word, but the version that actually left you awestruck. The view wasn’t even really the best part, it was this feeling that overcame me when I realised I’d be sharing this profound love for music with this massive sea of people for the next 72hrs. And that I did.

Sharing, in my opinion, has so much power to bring happiness and joy.

While I was standing there on New Year’s Eve, dancing in about seven other peoples personal space and they in mine, I felt such immense joy. I would look around at others hugging their friends and boogie-ing and just smile. Stuff like that is really reassuring, especially when you’re slightly moderately drunk. The fact that everyone is there to have a good time and share that with you is so moving. Well, almost everyone anyway.

It happens in so many mosh-pits at so many gigs and festivals. There’ll be someone who doesn’t know their limits, and drinks too much – or takes too much – and acts like an idiot. People who think just because someone dances with them, that they then have a right to grope or touch that person. There were two reports of sexual harassment on the first day there. Luckily that was the extent of it, but there’s still the fact that it happened at all. Someone’s experience was ruined, and they would’ve spent the rest of their time feeling unsafe, just because of a select few dickheads. That’s the thing about crowds like that, they’re all-inclusive, which while being amazing, means the bad eggs can still find a way in.

I walked away from the festival at the end of the three days absolutely chuffed. I’d felt so much a part of something bigger. I’d realised how amazing live music events like this are at bringing people together. Something people don’t really realise about mosh-pits is that everyone (well, 98% of people) looks out for each other. If you fall over, four people will reach down at once. If you’re not feeling great, someone will notice and hand you a bottle of water. I even saw people give up a barrier spot just to help get someone out of the pit. Being part of a crowd like this really gives insight into why music audiences really are important and why live music is such a backbone for the youth today.

I think this relates back to our BCM110 this week in an interesting way. We had looked at Media Audiences and the original meaning of the word. It used to people a bunch of people all grouped together sharing this experience at the same time. This doesn’t really happen much anymore sadly. Many families might watch Netflix on their own accounts on their own devices, as opposed to sitting all in the lounge room watching the same thing on the one TV. When you’re at a festival, you’re part of an active audience. You get to share the experience. And what a good experience it is.

a few of my favourites

Thanks for checking out my blog. Welcome, I guess. 

I’ll skip a big intro, if you check in enough you’ll find out enough about me eventually anyway. I thought I would share some photos of my trip to Tasmania in early 2018 just to give you a bit of an idea of what I like. These were all taken with an old Nikon film camera, by my girlfriend Jess and I. 

My name’s Charlie, cheers for having a look and I’ll make a nice big post for you all real soon.


Jessica sitting near the top of Cape Pillar, part of a five day hike we undertook encompassing part of the Three Capes Track.

The view looking back over the past few days of hiking, as we finally reached the top of Cape Pillar

Cooking dinner at a friend’s cosy house, ‘Dacha Lomonica’ in Woodbridge, a small town south of Hobart.

An exhibit at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart, where you enter a room and this pool of oil is perfectly reflecting the concrete walls around it.