4. Public Connections Project
(Manuel Alejandro Guerrero)
ANTECEDENTS
• 2003-2006 LSE study = Nick Couldry, Sonia Livingstone &Tim
Markham, Media Consumption and Public Engagement, Palgrave
2007.
• Aim of the project:
– to explore people’s understanding of what counted as ‘public issues’
and how their media consumption relate to such understanding.
• This ‘orientation’ was called Public Connection.
• Mexico same research with two variances:
– only college educated individuals from MexicoCity Metropolitan area
– digital media consumption.
5. Key issues
• Theory says there are relatively conscious citizens of their
rights/obligations…
• How does this work in real daily-life?
• Theory says that the media’s informational role helps
citizens to be updated on common interest public issues
and eventually engage…
• How does this work in real daily-life?
6. Shared transformations
• In different ways, though with similar trends in
urban modern settings:
– Increased amalgamation of news & entertainment
– Increasing predominance of on-line activities
– Increasing variety of services/contents available
– Increased ‘disconection’ from traditional politics, but
higher ‘connection’ to platforms providing
entertainment, private services and social networking.
7. Some hunches
• These changes are contributing to blur among certain users
the frontiers between public/private (i.e. Public actions may
spring out from private practices)
• Traditional ways of surveying are not representing and
mapping these transformations
• Traditional political science models are not accounting for
these transformations (the categories are still so stiff in a way)
• These are relevant for the future and the legitimacy of
democracy
8. Public connection
• What does it mean/feel to be a citizen on a day-to-
day basis?
• In which sort of situations you may feel you’re
acting as a citizen?
• What kind of ‘public issues’ are part of your daily-
life conversations/interests?
• How does the kind of contents you are consuming
on the media relate to such meaning/feeling?
9. Findings (both UK and Mx)
• On “public”
– There is an understanding –more or less clear—of
what public interest issues are.
– There is interest on, and knowledge about, “public
issues”, though low levels of trust in politicians and
politics.
– Public interest issues = mostly politics; but also
references to social, cultural & entertainment topics.
– There is a “theoretical” identification of the division
between public and private, but it blurs in their daily
life practices.
10. Findings (UK and Mx)
• The ‘mediation’:
– Strongly mediated “public connection”
– In Mx, the connection starts with something that is
discussed or listened at home, college, friends, and then
they go and seek further info in the social networks.
– In most topics, though their primary source may not be
mediatic, there is still strong coincidence with the media
agenda (Agenda Setting & Priming strong role).
– Digital media consumption does not replaces traditional
media (many sources are the same. I.e.The web sites of
traditional media to which they arrived viaTweeter).
11. Findings (Mx)
• They do participate, but not through the
traditional channels. New concepts are needed in
political science to forms of participation that are
sometimes not even recognized as such by the
actors themselves.
• Constant activity in social networks
• Incipient forms of deliberation (exchanges with
authorities are frequent!)
• The basis for them to “feel” their citizenship is to
be informed… from there they act, or not.
33. Discussion time!
1) Select a public issue that is relevant for
young people in your country (choose only
one in each table).
34. 2)Think of a target:
1. Politician from the Government
2. Politician from the opposition
3. Journalist from a traditional media
4. Journalist from a new, “alternative” media
5. International NGO
6. Local NGO
35. 3)What are the challenges that you would face
if you were trying to get your issue into this
agent’s agenda?
4) In one sentence:What would be the best
strategy to reach your target?
Notas del editor
ON PUBLIC CONNECTION:
As the original project, this one seeks to investigate how individuals’ media consumption is related to their orientation to a space of public issues beyond the private. This orientation is called ‘public connection’ and, where sustained by media consumption, ‘mediated public connection’
We use the concept of ‘public’ in the same way as in the original study: referring to that content/relevance issues that require collective resolution as opposed to those of purely private concern (Geuss 2001)
So, the aim is to investigate individuals’ orientation to a world of ‘public issues’ as they understand it, and how media sustains their connection to that world