The public as social experience

Mateus, Samuel

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/2917

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Authors

Mateus, Samuel

Abstract(s)

What the concept of public means today? We seek to contribute to this debate searching for a third-way of appraisal: the public is neither a simple audience constituted by media consumers nor just a rational-critical agency of a Public Sphere. We argue the concept should also be seen in at the light of a publicness principle, beyond a critic and manipulative publicity. In accordance, the public may be regarded as the result of the social activities made by individuals sharing symbolic representations and common emotions in publicness. Seen with lower-case, the concept is a set of subjectivities who look publicly for a feeling of belonging. So, in this perspective, the public is still a fundamental notion to social life although in a different manner in comparison to 18th century Public Sphere’s Public. He means above all the social textures and configurations where successive layers of social experience are built up. The public is, thus, acknowledged with the casual and spontaneous public communities disseminated through society carrying out processes of communication that use media to obtain a worldwide relevance.