Javnost - The Public, Vol. 33 - 2026, No. 1
Publicness Under Platforms: Aesthetic Colonisation and the Restructuring of Public Experience
This article examines how platform infrastructures reshape the experiential and normative foundations of publicness as a principle of collective orientation. It argues that contemporary digital environments organise visibility, attention and affect through an algorithmic organ- isation of the sensible that aligns perception with data extraction, behavioural prediction and episodic intensification, thereby reconfiguring the conditions under which public expe- rience acquires epistemic and democratic significance. To conceptualise this condition, the article develops the notion of aesthetic colonisation as the process through which platforms reorganise sensibility, temporal rhythm and the experienceability of publics. In dialogue with Dewey’s account of aesthetic experience, Benjamin’s analysis of shock and the dissolution of Erfahrung, Rosa’s theory of social acceleration and Splichal’s reconceptualisation of public- ness, the article shows how contractual publics stabilise the procedural conditions of partici- pation and how gig publics materialise collectivity through rhythmic peaks of circulation and performative visibility. The final sections outline an aesthetics of formation grounded in aes- thetic literacy, democratic infrastructures and public-service communication models oriented to reflective publicity. The renewal of democratic publicness depends on environments capa- ble of sustaining shared attention, temporal depth and the experiential resources required for collective understanding.
Enhancing Communication for Democratic Innovations: An Analytical Framework for Citizens' Assemblies
Communication is fundamental to democracy, although this importance varies according to the different models of democracy. In deliberative and participatory democracy models, citi- zen participation and engagement and the discursive dimension exponentially increase the role of information and communication. Democratic innovations, emerging from these delib- erative and participatory traditions, correspond to the type of initiative in which communi- cation plays an essential role. However, communication processes in democratic innovations are still understudied. The scarce research in the field reveals difficulties in reaching the citi- zens and increasing public awareness. This study analyses communication in three different institution-led democratic innovations, namely the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Bologna Citizens’ Assembly, and the Spanish Citizens’ Climate Assembly. The case studies pro- vide examples of local, national, and transnational initiatives at the European level. The qual- itative approach to the three case studies was based on 30 interviews with participants and organisers of the initiatives, complemented by the consultation of documents. The findings are integrated into an analytical framework to approach the communication of democratic innovations, resulting from the triangulation of the results.
Subscription Subjects, in the Name of Democracy, Let Us All Unite! A New Point of Democratic Transformation for Social Media
There are many approaches and ideas to democratically transform social media. These per- spectives range from better and more sophisticated regulation, reforming the design of social media platforms, better education of users and social ownership of social media platforms themselves. Following in this tradition, this article offers a novel point of democratic trans- formation of social media platforms: the subscription user. The introduction of subscription packages by Meta and Snapchat indicates a changing economic logic within social media platforms that situates subscription users with a newfound economic and political power to leverage against social media platforms. Through the works of Erik Olin Wright and Bonnie Honig, subscription users embody a point of democratic transformation as the fee (or the willingness to pay the fee) can be utilised as a collective form of social power, which enables public oversight of social media platforms.
Beyond Political Communication in Freefall – Where are We Now?
A decade and a half after “Political Communication in Freefall” (Blumler & Coleman), this article asks where the crisis of civic-democratic political communication now stands. It argues that the problem is no longer an unanchored system in freefall but a more organised and consequential shift in the normative foundations of public discourse: political illiberalism has gained legitimacy, while core liberal-democratic norms of publicity—equal respect for voices, reason-giving, truth-testing, and openness to plural narratives—have weakened. Framed as a Weberian legitimation conflict, the article examines how antagonistic value-sets contend over what counts as acceptable public controversy, who must justify claims, and which voices can be excluded without scandal. The British case (2016–2026) is used as a critical illustra- tion: Brexit-era turbulence, rapid turnover of governments, declining turnout, and the rise of Reform UK reveal a democracy characterised by volatility without durable public orientation. The article then analyses the media’s role in this reconfiguration, arguing that elements of mainstream journalism—under structural-economic pressure and intensifying competi- tion—have sometimes contributed to political chaos and illiberal normalisation, includ- ing through game framing, a narrow repertoire of expertise, and a degraded conception of impartiality under bad-faith conditions. Finally, the paper identifies four dimensions through which the new order is legitimated (ironic pragmatism, narrow expertise, hyper-fragmen- tation, and impunity for bad-faith actors) and concludes by calling for “democratic clarity”: a renewed set of normative commitments capable of resisting illiberal drift and rebuilding communicative conditions for democratic agency.
Addressing the “Theoretical Blight:” How Robert A. Brady Shaped Political Economy of Communication
In his foreword to Robert A. Brady’s canonical text, Business as a System of Power (1943), Brady’s colleague, Robert Lynd, questions—“will democratic political power absorb and use economic resources, bigness and all, to serve its ends, or will big economic power take over state power?” This far-fetched proposition guided Brady’s projects and inspired a new class of critical political economics, many of whom applied their analyses to the field of communica- tion. Brady’s expansive contributions to the field of communication are perhaps best under- stood through the context in which he conducted research and his web of influence in the academy. Brady’s musings reveal forgotten—or ostensibly omitted—revelations about how businesses wield power over social, technological, political, and cultural transformations. This investigation traces how Robert A. Brady’s social and political history, fiercely democratic ideology, and scathing critique of business and state coordination prove significant to the history of political economy of communication.
This Material Concerns the Activities of “Foreign Agents”: The Construction of “Foreign Agents” in Russian Media Discourse
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the “foreign agent” legislation is one example of the further tightening of restrictive discriminatory legislation of Putin’s regime in attempts to restrain, silence and criminalise opposition and dissenting views from the public sphere and discourse. Starting from the multidisciplinary approach of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study investigates the construction of media discourse on “foreign agents” by two state-affiliated outlets (Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda) and one independent, alternative (Meduza) during three subsequent time frames from February 2022 to March 2024. The dom- inant discourse in state-owned and affiliated media signifies compliance and governmen- tal alignment aimed at delegitimisation, stigmatisation and exclusion of “foreign agents”. Meduza challenges the dominant discourse and aims to (re)define the prevailing narratives, expose injustice, and contest the current socio-political conjuncture, ultimately urging for civic engagement and change. The paper concludes by reflecting on the dual use of language in authoritarian contexts as both a mechanism of control and repression and an instrument of resistance and contestation at the same time.
Popular Culture as a Vehicle for Identity Representation: Social Media Influencers, Collective Identity Portrayals, and Audience Engagement
Social media influencers—regular people who become famous through successful self-presentation on social media—intertwine entertainment with socio-political narratives in their communication. In this content, they display collective identities like sexual or religious identities. These collective identity portrayals (CIPs) could foster the visibility of marginalized groups and shared meaning-making but may also reinforce stigmatization. This quantita- tive content analysis investigates how YouTubers identified in a prior youth survey (N = 1829) portray collective identities in their political videos (N = 267). Our findings reveal that most (67.79%) of these videos contain at least one CIP. Furthermore, videos containing political and religious CIPs receive more comments, suggesting that collective identities may trigger collective action. Finally, while religious and gender CIPs are embedded in an emotional context, sexual CIPs co-occur with incivility. These findings align with the idea that collective identities in digital public spaces are expressed through personal experiences without formal gatekeeping. Notably, many sexual CIPs referred to minorities, underscoring the assumed vis- ibility of underrepresented groups on social media. However, their presence alongside incivil- ity contradicts the assumption that these spaces may approach such issues in a more positive way compared to the discourses dominant in legacy media.