TOWARDS A PORTABLE PUBLIC SPHERE: HOW TECHNOLOGY CREATED A DISCURSIVE SPACE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1968
Date
2017
Authors
Griffith, Misha Mazzini
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Abstract
This study examines the efforts to use communication technology to create a public sphere in two very different circumstances. The first instance was in socialist Czechoslovakia in January of 1968, when a group of reformers were given the leadership of an authoritarian government in an economic crisis. They instituted such reforms as freedom of expression to re-engage the population and revitalize the economy. The second instance was in August of that same year when a foreign military intervention stopped the government’s reform agenda. In both situations, broadcast and consumer technology played crucial roles by engaging citizen participation in politics and the public space.
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Keywords
Modern history, Mass communication, European history, 1968, Broadcast technology, Czechoslovakia, Democratization of Technology, History of Technology, Public Sphere