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.

Analyses historical changes in the core phenomena of publicness: possibilities, conditions and obstacles to developing a public sphere in which publics create, articulate and express public opinion by means of reflexive publicity within an established democratic public culture.

About the Author

Slavko Splichal is Professor of Communication and Public Opinion at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Social Sciences, fellow of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and member of Academia Europaea. He is founder and director of the European Institute for Communication and Culture and editor of its journal Javnost - The Public.

Reviews

"Slavko Splichal's book is an excellent, outstanding, highly important and extremely topical analysis of how datafication has colonised publicness, public opinion, and the public sphere. This work is a must-read for everyone who cares about democracy and is interested in how we can save democracy and democratic communication(s) from the threats they face today."-Professor Christian Fuchs, author of "Social Media: A Critical Introduction" and "Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory."

"Slavko Splichal's book is based on a historical perspective, Splichal provides a brilliant analysis of the impact of technological advances (polling, data and opinion mining, algorithms) on publicness combined with an urgent call for more complex and critical empirical research. Thought-provoking in its best sense." -Professor Dr. Christina Holtz-Bacha, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat School of Business, Economics and Society, Nuremberg.

"Slavko Splichal writes with impressive intellectual depth, raising critical questions about what he describes as the datafication of the public sphere. The great value of this book is its sensitivity to long-term historical trends that have prevented the public from realising its democratic potential."-Stephen Coleman, Professor of Political Communication, University of Leeds, UK.

Though the title might imply an empirical examination of data mining today, Splichal's book is more of an intellectual history of the concepts of "publicness" and "public sphere." He examines how scholars use these terms and considers how they apply to media and political communication now. Splichal (communications and public opinion, Univ. of Ljubljana, Slovenia) also touches on journalism and its current crisis, including citizens' loss of trust in it and journalism's own loss of direction. One fundamental problem Splichal addresses is how publicness or public opinion can be used to democratically mediate between citizens and the government. He raises important points about the rise of survey research, after which opinions expressed privately were paradoxically labeled public opinion. Splichal is concerned about private control and the lack of true publicness in the means of public communication. It would be interesting to see more discussion of how much private interests control the knowledge gained through data mining. Thought provoking but difficult to parse.- J. Heyrman, Berea College

Book Information
ISBN 9781839984501
Author Slavko Splichal
Format Hardback
Page Count 182
Imprint Anthem Press
Publisher Anthem Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 153mm * 26mm