william couch

Last semester, we were discussing Jürgen Habermas and the concept of “The Public Sphere” in my COMM 371 (Media and Culture) class, and while sitting there listening to my quirky professor break off onto strange tangents, I couldn’t help drawing parallels between this “public sphere” and the “blogosphere.” Habermas described this public sphere as such:

By ‘public sphere’ we mean first of all a domain of our social life in which such a thing as public opinion can be formed. Access to the public sphere is open in principle to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere is constituted in every conversation in which private persons come together to form a public. They are then acting neither as business or professional people conducting their private affairs… Citizens act as a public when they deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion; thus with the guarantee that they may assemble and unite freely, and express and publicize their opinions freely.

When you think about the critical discussions on innumerable topics that so many weblogs have started it becomes clear that the blogosphere very well may be an online iteration of the public sphere. Blogging gives an uncensored method to publish content that is instantly available to anyone with the URL, or a few keywords in a Google search. As Habermas stated, “Citizens act as a public when they deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion…that they may assemble and unite freely and express and publicize their opinions freely.” All across the blogosphere, bloggers are quoting other bloggers, linking back to articles of interest and commenting on proposed ideas, allowing people devoted to particular topics to start a conversation, critique ideas, develop opinions and in general learn from others. Really, any internet user can utilize Google to find, at the very least, a forum, and more often, a blog devoted to a discussion related to the user’s interest. In this way, people can and do initiate conversations with people from around the world on topics that matter the most to them. Just in breaking those geographical boundaries alone, accelerates the concept of the public sphere to an entirely new, and perhaps more utopic, level.

The critique, however, to this concept of the public sphere lies within the difference between public and private interests. How can one have a discussion without someone bringing a private matter, opinion or anecdote to the table? How can one have a public debate without private interests playing a role? It stems back to Karl Mannheim’s paradox that it is impossible to look at a matter completely objectively because from birth people have learned from experience and those experiences, in one way another, will be inescapable when it comes to looking at something objectively, critically and publicly:

A strong interpretation claims that all knowledge and beliefs are the products of socio-political forces, but this version is self-defeating, because if it is true, then it too is merely a product of socio-political forces and has no claim to truth and no persuasive force. Wikipedia Article (see last paragraph on Karl Mannheim).

Mannheim makes a valid point but bringing private and personal interests to the table if anything spawns new ideas and expands the conversation, thus proposing a new idea to handling this issue: thinking of private interests as simply extending the public sphere. When someone makes a comment on a blog that argues the blogger’s post, or proposes a lesser-known facet of the issue, simply a new conversation begins that will either force more critical thinking or will cause a change in view on either end of the discussion; in either case, this issue of the privatization of the public sphere isn’t so much detrimental as it is beneficial, and this also applies to the blogosphere. Thus, in virtually every manner is the blogosphere an exemplary model of the public sphere, and in this regard Habermas would most likely agree.

Welcome to 2006. I understand I haven’t been doing much here; I’ve been incredibly busy in the past few weeks and I don’t foresee that ending anytime soon. As such, I have been unable to update the design of this site. For now though, come here for the content, as I do plan to post weekly.

Since my introductory entry, much has changed. Not just the new year, but my viewpoints on much of the new media that has arisen. Events such as CES in Las Vegas last week, to having heated talks about culture, media, technology and the social and technological impacts the three are generating, with professional journalists, bloggers and friends alike have enlivened my thoughts, and will subsequently enliven this site. I’ll be keeping this post brief, but in light of these events, I would like to propose two trends that 2006 will see and will once again transform our media landscape and concepts of content delivery.

Photocasting - This is not strictly due to Apple’s introduction of photocasting support in iPhoto bundled in iLife ‘06, as announced at Macworld on Tuesday, but it plays a role. As an avid photographer, this means of content delivery for photos is wonderful utilization of technology. The ability to have an ongoing photo album of your favorite photographer’s photos will be a powerful and useful tool to publicize one’s work, and to share photos in an easier manner than the burdened form of bulk emails, or .ZIP files via YouSendIt. Moreover, like podcasting, this trend will be realized by more than subscriber’s of del.icio.us popular and Slashdot techies due to Apple’s support and seamless integration. Applications with photocasting support in Windows and support by Flickr and feed aggregators will develop this year and ease the introduction and use to an even greater extent.

The Publishing Industry Meets the Internet - This semester, I am taking a class about The Future of Daily Newspapers, which is being taught by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Mark McDonald and where the students must subscribe to the print edition of the New York Times to investigate the matter hands-on. I’m taking another on Computer-Mediated Communication, where parallels have been drawn between the failure of the recording industry to recognize the Internet as a new content delivery platform, and how newspapers may too fall into a simliar trap. In all, interesting discussions have begun to challenge the very ideology of the publishing industry. And it’s not just these classes that have gotten me thinking. Andy Rutledge, the Creative Director of NetSuccess in Dallas, has written about the site design of online newspapers and how, in order to maintain readership online and in print, must translate their site’s design to mirror their print’s or at the very least present an experience as aesthetically pleasing as newsprint in order to stay in competition with other newspapers. A local friend of mine, Eston Bond, managing online editor of The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan’s student run newspaper (currently undergoing reconstruction in light of this topic), and I have had numerous discussions on the topic, one resulting in a 2 hour debate and an entry on his site, hyalineskies. Slate Magazine had a feature on the topic and Slashdot too saw an entry on the debate. And perhaps the biggest factor that will play a role is New York Times’ hiring of Khoi Vin, of Subtraction and advocate of the grid in web design, to head Online Design. This move could very well be the start of an initiative to reevalute how publishers and newspapers present and deliver their content online. All of this activity will surely spur interesting change and discussion in the publishing industry, from challenging what defines journalistic credibility to considering the very aesthetics of reading the news in print. I’ll post my 2 cents in a later entry, but be on the lookout for these two.

My name is William (informally Bill) Couch and this is my new site. I am a student at the University of Michigan, double majoring in Communications and Screen and Arts Cultures. Fascinated by today’s pop culture and technological progression, I frequently find myself relating my studies with these concepts, so here you will be finding entries incorporating theories from communications, film and others with the changes happening in our cultural and technological landscape. I am immensely intrigued by the development and changing face of Web 2.0, including sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, digg and Rollyo. Further, as a college student, I find the Facebook to be the single most important and interesting tool for college students since the incorporation of the internet with students’ lives. As such I am amazed at how it is changing the way our youth culture is interacting with one another (and wasting their precious free time). Currently, I am in the progress of writing a theoretical study for my Communications 381 class, investigating the Facebook’s usage and effect among college students.

However, I won’t be blogging just about these topics. I am an avid photographer and will be spotlighting my favorite photos from my Flickr photostream at the top of the site. Additionally, you’ll find entries on other interests of mine in the Music and Personal (with more to come) Categories at right.

So stop on in every once and a while, that is if you can stray away from the RSS feed, and welcome to williamcouch.com.

[Please pardon formatting and layout issues with the site. I am fairly new to Web Design and I will be making continuous improvements to this site in the days and weeks to come.]