Democracy posits that broadly based participation in deliberative processes will lead to laws and policies that are more inclusive and more just than the measures enacted by monarchs or powerful elites (Hauser 1999:5). Jurgen Habermas (1964) propounded the theoretical concept of the public sphere as a “domain of social life where public opinion is expressed by means of rational public discourse and debate” (Papacharissi, 2013:113). It is on such a platform that democracy is seen in action. Changes in socio-economic structures of states and advancements in communication technologies that have occurred in the last decades have facilitated a transformation in the character of the public spheres. The explosion of new media technologies has made it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways, thus fostering a participatory culture (Jenkins et al :2004). This research analyses the extent to which six videos categorized under the banner, “Hug a Muslim” campaign utilize YouTube as a platform for opinion sharing and for promoting public awareness of negative, stereotypical representations of Muslims. Such representations promote mistrust, suspicion, fear and other prejudices that associate Islam and Muslims with discourses of terrorism. Through critical discourse analysis, this research discusses power dynamics and discursive elements underlying the videos in the sample. Applying Gerard Hauser (1998) ´s rhetorical model of the public sphere, this research explores the extent to which online viewer comments accompanying the videos on YouTube adhere to the five rhetorical norms that determine their effectiveness as public sphere discourse, thus helping in establishing whether or not YouTube functions as an effective rhetorical public sphere in the context of the “Hug a Muslim” campaign. This study revealed that 58% of the analysed YouTube viewer comments on the campaign were compatible with the five rhetorical norms and thus reflecting YouTube´s function as a rhetorical public sphere in the context of the “Hug a Muslim” campaign. In an effort to further understand the motivations as well as underlying processes surrounding the creation and sharing of the videos, online questionnaires have been administered to the content producers of the videos under analysis in this research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-22726 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Zhakata, Santino |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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