Datafication of public opinion and the public sphere : how extraction replaced expression of opinion / by Slavko Splichal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Splichal, Slavko, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political sociology.

Public opinion.

Public interest.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 168 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2022.

Summary:

The book, anchored in stimulating debates about the enlightenment ideas of publicness, analyses historical changes in the core phenomena of publicness: possibilities, conditions and obstacles to developing a public sphere in which the public reflexively creates, articulates and expresses public opinion. It is focused on the historical transformation from 'public use of reason' through the identification of 'public opinion' in opinion polls to contemporary opinion mining, in which the Enlightenment idea of public expression of opinion has been displaced by the technology of extracting opinions. It heralds a new critical impetus in theory and research of publicness at a time when critical social thought is sharply criticising and even abandoning the notion of the public sphere, much like the notion of public opinion decades ago, due to its predominantly administrative use.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Prologue

List of Figures and Tables

Introduction

1 The Rise of Public Opinion as the Voice of the People

Subversive Beginnings

Seeds of Doubt

Conceptual Challenges and Controversies in Sociology and Political Science

2 Quantification of Public Opinion and the Disempowerment of the Public

The Quantitative Revolution in the Social Sciences

Polling: Operationalisation, Emanation or Negation of Public Opinion?

The Curse of Translation: The Invisible Becomes Visible

3 Re-Emergence of Publicness in the Public Sphere

The Rediscovery of Critical Publicness

The Perplexity of Publicness: Öffentlichkeit versus the Public Sphere

The Deliberative Turn and the Loss of the Public

Antagonists, Agonists, Mini-Publics and Publics as Actors in the Public Sphere

4 Datafication of the Public Sphere and Threats to Publicness

The Rise of Opinion Mining and the 'Networked Public Sphere'

Opinion Mining versus Polling

Technology and the Democratic Potentials of Publicness

Manipulating 'Public Opinion': From Propaganda Techniques to Invisible Algorithms

5 Critical Epistemic Value of Publicness and Public-Worthiness

News Overload and Crisis of Journalism

Fostering Public Discourse: From Newsworthiness to Public-Worthiness

The Clash of Rationalities and the Need to Rehabilitate Publicness

Rearticulating the Critical Epistemic Value of Publicness: VARMIL

Conclusion

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Dec 2022).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781839984518

1839984511

9781839984525

183998452X

OCLC:

1333082860