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PP 246
Media, Emotions and the Religious Construction of the Public Sphere
M. Coman
1
, C. Coman
1
1
Bucharest University, Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Bucharest, Romania
In the past 25 years, the public sphere theoretical model proposed by Habermas in the 60s and re-discovered after the 90s, was the subject of certain per‑
manent debates. Habermas himself became a pioneer of reflection on his early theories,including the re-definition of the religion’s role in contemporaneity
and its place in the public sphere. Habermas argues that the integration of religion in the public sphere can be done through laic participants’ availability
to tolerate, in a debate, positions based on the truths (indisputable for believers) of the dogma and through the effort to translate the dogma in rational
formulas. We would like to propose a development of the habermasian model in which religion could be not only a tolerated discourse in the public sphere,
but also a constitutive factor of the construction of the public sphere. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that, under certain circumstances, media
achieve a religious construction of a political event. Religion as well as mass media are important meaning-makers, offering symbolic constructs (mythical
narratives, ritual behaviors, sacred values) that structure our worldview. Under certain circumstances, media offer a kind of an as-if-religious coverage
of an event; through this, journalists capitalize, in the act of communication, on their social position and role, presenting themselves as the instance that
mark and legitimize the definition of an event; for a short period of time, they have a ritual mastery over the debates and interpretation of events of great
importance for society. It enables journalists to exert a total control over the process of building a version of the reality and to present themselves as lithur‑
gic officiants and ”apostles” of the event. Within this framework, meanings appear as already existing, and those who report the sequence of facts and
their meaning appear as agents of an extra-mundane ‘truth’. The construction of the event in religious language is born and remains only in the discourse
(ephemeral) of the press, it is not transformed into ritualistic actions, forms of clerical organization, or into faith. The religious symbolistic does not refer
to a religious manifestation, but it is a language through which can be said something that is not religious (in the canonical sense), but it also can’t be
expressed in another code. Media sacralize events and they appear in the public sphere as religious embedded significances. In other words, the religious
matrix constructs the vision about those issues and in theory, places the debate in the framework of the religious discourse. In these situations, religious
discourse of mass media creates a public sphere constructed after a religious matrix. The debate won’t be now one about religion or a religious event, nor
one with church representatives or with faithful persons, but one about profane events presented and signified with the help of certain religious symbols.
PP 247
"Cosmopolitan" Cities: Performing Solidarity – Mediating Space
M. Christensen
1
1
Stockholm University, Dept of Media Studies, STOCKHOLM, Sweden
Cosmopolitanism is to be regarded as neither a fixed nor stable outlook. Today, the 'cosmopolitan urban', the global city, embodies de facto presence of dif‑
ference through transnational mobility, mediated imagery, connectivity, urban unrest and protests, and the voicing of marginalized ideas and identities
through various acts and performances.This process of cosmopolitanization, the coming together of local and global complexities (often without cosmopol‑
itanism), yields an urban landscape that is emblematic of the messiness, contradictions and confrontations that underlie urban life today. Certain norms and
ideals in certain timespaces occupy the center (the space of ordinary belonging) while Others find voice from a position of marginality. Such confrontations
can be symbolic in form, such as protest movements or graffiti art or enter into the legal-regulatory realm through authoritarian control (of graffiti for
instance) or physical clash and violence. Most of the literature on cultural and political cosmopolitanism and citizenship has been dominated by cognitive
aspects with embodied and affective dimensions or ‘recognizable performative repertoires that are expressive and embodied’ (Hetherington, 1998) paid
lesser attention to. In this paper, I discuss culturally and aesthetically constructed moralities embedded in various forms of embodied/spatial expressivity
and mediated performances of solidarity such as street art and graffiti in Stockholm. Of further significance here are Bourdieu’s notion of ‘practical belief’
which he defines as a state of the body rather than a state of mind; and, Harvey’s (2009) politics of space. Collective local movements such as Gatukonst and
Street Art Stockholm often involve‘illegal’art.The goals of the artists can be overtly political and moral or involve decorative art, which can be interpreted as
certain ideological, banal or counter-hegemonic ways. These local initiatives are also globally connected through the media, withWooster Collective being
one such example. There has also been an increase in Neo-Nazi graffiti in Stockholm within the past few years, following the admittance of a large number
of refugees in to the country. This paper will provide an historical contextualization of both politics of urban space and graffiti in Stockholm in relation to
regulatory and legal aspects; and, an analysis of the current cultural, political and spatial environment in the city based upon an ethnographic study and
qualitative in-depth interviews. As a normative and theoretical framework, cosmopolitanism here is used as a scope within which to understand social
and institutional boundaries and the range of moral and political orientations (and contestations) that shape social relations within urban environments.
References Bourdieu, P. (1980/1990) The Logic of Practice, Cambridge: Polity Press Harvey, D. (2009) Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom, NY:
Columbia Uni Press. Hetherington, K. (1998) Expressions of Identity: Space, Performance, Politics, London: Sage
PP 248
The Iconicity of War Photographs and Their Powerful Roots in Western Myths: A Rhetorical Analysis of Vietnam and Gulf War Images
A. Varricchio
1
1
Mid Sweden University, Media and Communication Science, Sundsvall, Sweden
Abstract for the 7
th
ECREA Communication Conference in Prague 2016 Section: Philosophy of Communication Author: Angela Varricchio Affiliation: Mid
Sweden University Department of Media and Communication Science SE 85170, Sundsvall Sweden Contact information:
[email protected]+46
702047325 Paper title:“The iconicity of war photographs and their powerful roots inWestern myths: A rhetorical analysis of Vietnam and Gulf war images”
“War photography is of particular importance in this regard, epitomizing as it does an ideal of photojournalism practice, providing a proving ground for
photojournalistic reputation, and ultimately supplying national symbols of patriotism, solidarity, death, and sacrifice.”Michael Griffin (1999) Photography
as a medium has played a role in building mass consensus as well as myths. Iconic photographs have widely contributed to direct and control public opin‑