Cultural transformations of Elitist discourse in the modern public sphere

Résumé du document

In his essay entitled ?the communist manifesto' Marx noted that the Bourgeois and the Proletarians form antagonistic classes in society. The history of society hitherto is the history of class struggles. IN my opinion, it marks the beginning of conflict in modern society. This conflict is the starting point of globalization. "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage-laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live" (note by Engels to the English edition in 1888). The conflict between the classes engages the idea that we exist in a society separated by orders determined by production. Who are the producers and who do they produce for? Through this concept Marx underlines, who oppressors are and who are oppressed by the system. "There are new classes, new conditions of oppression, and new forms of struggles" which follow the feudal society and create, what he called, the modern bourgeois society.

Extraits

[...] In both way, the goal was to demonstrate the domination of this discourse over the other publics. By this mean, we underlined the beginning of counter public to impose counter discourse in the public arena. In the same time, we used an historical approach to show the transformation of discourses and arena, since the start to capitalist society announced by Marx till the Informationalism Age introduced by Castells. In this way, we understood the evolution and the importance of the counter publics. [...]

[...] We enter in a global systemic perspective, which change the perception of discourse in the modern society. Media and cultural transformations. The text of Jonathan Friedman, entitled “Globalisation and the making of a global imaginary”, in global encounters, give us a definition of the concept of globalisation. There is two levels to consider : First, globalisation is product of a larger cosmological transformation of western modernity”. Second, “this transformation can only be properly understood from a global systemic perspective”. One of the most striking features of this problem is the relation to culture, which is included in the main global processes. [...]

[...] Such a definition suggests that the public sphere is although the scene of the communication between each society. Then, he considers that the public sphere may be understand as a privileged medium in the formation of a collective identity, which are essential for each society. However, it's important to underline that this medium is influenced, even in the modern society by an elitist discourse which proposes his personal convictions for the general interest of the community. It's an important point when we understand that nowadays media becomes what we called the fourth power. [...]

[...] (eds.) Global encounters Media and Cultural Transformation, Luton; University of Luton Press - Habermas, J. concept of public opinion”, in the public sphere - Hannerz, U., local and the global, continuity and change”, Transnational connections, London; Routledge - Herman, E.S., Mc Chesney, R.W., The Global media, the new missionaries of global capitalism, Cassel, London and Washington - Hoggart, R., The uses of Literacy, Essential books, Fair Lawn, N. J - Klein, N., No logo, London ; Flamingo - Macé, E., “Qu'est ce qu'une sociologie de la télévision ? [...]

[...] For example, it permitted to David Morley and Charlotte Brunsdon, in 1978, to mark a turning point in the televisual research. It would appear then, that the founders of the Culture Studies presents at first the theoretic acquaintances, and second permit to develop new problematic in the modern society. But always, focused on culture as the main site of tensions between mechanisms of domination and resistance. The mystification of the mass. In France, at the same period of the Cultural Studies, another movement is developed. [...]