Public Opposition
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Public opposition describes a form of social activity that deliberately opposes establishment opinion in the
public sphere The public sphere () is an area in social relation, social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion, Social influence, influence political action. A "Public" is "of or c ...
in order to raise public awareness of topics, problems or social groups that appear to be neglected or oppressed. As with the public sphere, public opposition is in direct opposition to the private sphere — at its core, it is about occupying public spaces where people can gather and get informed. The development of various means of communication has decisively influenced the forms and possibilities of informational transfer.
Demonstrations Demonstration may refer to: * Demonstration (acting), part of the Brechtian approach to acting * Demonstration (military), an attack or show of force on a front where a decision is not sought * Protest, a public act of objection, disapproval or d ...
are the oldest and still current means for people to draw attention to themselves, their situation or their concerns. Here, no (technological) means of communication is needed to convey messages - this can be done by shouting, chanting or displaying posters - and the messages will come across.
Advocacy journalism Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Some advocacy journalists reject the idea that the traditional ideal of objectivity is possible or practical, in par ...
also attempts to draw attention to topics that are underrepresented in the mass media.


Theory of public opposition


Origin of the Term

The term "public opposition" was first used in Germany in the 1970s. The term arose in discourse for alternative opinions on politics and society which were not properly publicised and could not be published by established media institutions. The protests of 1968 showed how ineffectual the direct action of the movement was after their first, even violent, actions, such as blocking the delivery of newspapers from the publishers
Axel Springer SE Axel Springer SE () is a European multinational corporation, multinational mass media, mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketi ...
. These experiences gave rise to the idea of using technical media to produce their own material. From 1970 onwards an attempt was made to investigate these confrontations and disputes within their theoretical and historical context. The development of a new form of "
mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...
", particularly television, played a crucial part. The work ''Public Sphere and Experience'', written by
Oskar Negt Oskar Reinhard Negt (; 1 August 1934 – 2 February 2024) was a German philosopher and critical social theorist. He was a professor of sociology in Hanover from 1972 to 2002, regarded as one of Germany's most prominent social scientists. A mem ...
and
Alexander Kluge Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.(editor) Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing ...
in 1972 referred to the philosopher
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...
, who published "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" in 1962, and which was formative for this development.


Historical Background

"The original need for public recognition in a representative sense seems to have been the need of the reigning feudal class. The predominantly middle-class community adopts these ways of expression of rule and partly changes their function." Habermas chose the term "plebeian public sphere" - derived from the mixed urban lower classes, who, during the French Revolution, undertook attempts to develop a public sphere appropriate for them.
Oskar Negt Oskar Reinhard Negt (; 1 August 1934 – 2 February 2024) was a German philosopher and critical social theorist. He was a professor of sociology in Hanover from 1972 to 2002, regarded as one of Germany's most prominent social scientists. A mem ...
and
Alexander Kluge Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.(editor) Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing ...
chose “the term proletarian public because it is not a variant of the middle-class public, but rather a historically based completely different view of the overall social context.“ In the preface to ''Öffentlichkeit und Erfahrung'' the authors define their interest in "investigating the contradictory tendencies arising within advanced capitalist society with regard to the conditions for the emergence of public opposition."


Public opposition as an intermediary stage

In the reception of the work, particularly in the university field, the term “public opposition” stuck. It has survived to this day, although Negt and Kluge described public opposition as an “early form of the proletarian public” – a concept that did not survive the change in terminology. A reduction to the opposing view or a mere representation of oppositional thinking was not the authors’ intentions. Furthermore, the “proletarian public” should also be more than a way to implement the interests of a particular social class: they were concerned – looking to the future – with a “transformation process” to achieve “the alliance capabilities between the social forces which are able to carry out the full scope of the reorganisation of our future society”. On this premise, since the 1970s public opposition could only have emerged in rudimentary forms and on a comparatively small scale. It is significant, however, that within the framework of the youth and protest movements, and later the
New Social Movements The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various Western world, western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy ...
, especially the development of technical options caused a decentralization of the public sphere. This led to a proliferation of “independent spaces” – in particular through the expansion of cultural activities – and even to the “virtual spaces” of the internet. However, this process, its effects, and its connection with social developments have not been comprehensively analysed and presented on a theoretical level since Negt and Kluge.


Practice of Public Opposition


Public Relations in the Protest Movement

The first activities in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin that one can place in the bounds of public opposition occurred during the
West German student movement The West German student movement (), sometimes called the 1968 movement in West Germany (), was a left-wing social movement that consisted of mass student protests in West Germany in 1968. Participants in the movement later came to be known as ...
. The periodicals Agit 883 and "Langer Marsch" (''The long walk'' - translator's suggestion) were known nationwide. The most important medium was the leaflet. Since there were not yet any simple printing or copying methods, the production of magazines was costly and in most cases only possible in connection with institutions or trade unions. This applied also to audiovisual media, at that time the 16mm film. Documentaries were mainly made at th
German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB)
and the Institute for Film Design in Ulm. A broadcast on television was only possible in rare cases. One platform was the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen. In most cases screenings were organised by the creators themselves. In the later course of the West German student movement, the often well-financed
K-Gruppen K-Gruppen (''Kommunistische Gruppen'', "Communist Groups") is a term referring to various Marxist (often Maoist) organizations that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studen ...
(communist groups) and organisations with close ties to the GDR emerged, which had sufficient production resources for the public relations of their party.


Alternative movement of the 1970s

Inspired by the protest movement, the generations after 1968 also developed new methods of media production, which was, however, hardly agitational and often initially served to help groups or scenes understand themselves. The technical development created new means of production – such as
Super 8 film Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The formal name for Super 8 is 8-mm Type S, distinguishing it from the ...
, which succeeded 16mm film – and also music equipment for bands, studios and event organisers (youth centres) became affordable. The university strikes in Berlin and the Federal Republic in 1976/1977 subsequently led to a boom in start-up projects. Meanwhile, the ‘unorganised’ with their majority and experience in event organisation and public relations were able to break the dominance of the
K-Gruppen K-Gruppen (''Kommunistische Gruppen'', "Communist Groups") is a term referring to various Marxist (often Maoist) organizations that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studen ...
(Communist Groups). It was the time when people left universities and established themselves in the city districts, known as the '
Kiez ''Kiez'' () (also: ''Kietz'') is a German word for a city neighbourhood, a relatively small community within a larger town. The word is mainly used in Berlin and northern Germany. Similar quarters are called '' Veedel'' in Cologne and '' Grätzl ...
' (Tunix-congress 1978). First in the university centres and soon in every larger city, so-called 'Stattzeitungen' (German wordplay for 'anti-newspapers') such as the ''Blatt'' in Munich, ''Klenkes'' in Aachen, or ''De Schnüss'' in Bonn were published. They reached print runs of up to 20,000 and provided a forum for the different groups that were not given a voice in the local press. An abundance of small and alternative newspapers appeared in the German-speaking world. In 1974 Peter Engel and W. Christian Schmitt were able to identify around 250 new alternative newspapers that had appeared since 1965. In 1986, the directory of alternative newspapers published by the 'information service for the distribution of omitted news' (ID) listed around 600 more or less regularly published newspapers and magazines. The alternative movement achieved success with the six-week-long festival of the environment at the radio tower in Berlin in the summer of 1978, which was attended by tens of thousands of interested citizens. The film about the event, made by an associated group, the Berlin media workshop, titled ''If you do not have the courage to dream, you have no strength to fight'', was screened in February 1980 at the Forum for Young Films at the
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
.


Social Movements

Additionally, a lot of cabaret acts and theatre groups were founded during this phase (for example the Frankfurter Fronttheater and Die Drei Tornados, among others). The term public opposition now detached itself from its limited political purpose and also incorporated cultural work as well as subject-orientated activities, which became necessary in environmental engagement. The spectrum ranged from
Vergangenheitsbewältigung ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' (, "struggle of overcoming the past" or "work of coping with the past") is a German compound noun describing processes that since the later 20th century have become key in the study of post-1945 German literature ...
(the struggle to overcome the past) to
environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...
and the
anti-nuclear movement The Anti-nuclear war movement is a new social movements, social movement that opposes various nuclear technology, nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified them ...
. The specialisation allowed the development of respective magazines for the
women's movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. Such issues are women's ...
, tenants' association, environmental groups and eco-groups. It was not only in Berlin that the possibility of using ''autonomous spaces'' was recognised (Kreuzberg) and then extended due to the widespread phenomenon of
squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...
. After the movements dwindled, the projects and opposing media either agreed to disagree, fused, or disbanded, for various reasons. To survive, many had to undergo a process of commercialisation. Examples are
alternative newspaper An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting ...
s like ''Ketchup'' from Heidelberg or ''Tip'' and ''Zitty'' in Berlin. This also affected the contents. With the internet, public opposition also shifted to the web. However, the term went out of fashion and is now just used as a historical expression.


Public opposition in the Eastern Bloc

The Russian term
samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...
(literally: ''
self-publishing Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fro ...
'') referred to the spread of
alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...
"grey" literature that did not conform to the system in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and later on in other parts of the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
. was spread via non-official channels, for example copying by hand, typing or photocopying. ''Samizdat'' existed to a significant extent in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, the
GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...
,
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
and
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
.


Forms of public opposition

In addition to demonstrations, the preferred media of public opposition has been printed works (books, brochures, newspapers, posters and flyers) and audiovisual products (films, videos, photos, music on records, tapes and cassettes). This also included public performances:
Street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or universi ...
, artistic or politically motivated performances, musical performances and concerts. With these works and actions, "public opposition" was created.


Radio, film and video

Additional media became cheaper and more accessible to the opposing public "from below" with the technological advancements of the 1980s. First illegal, later legal, alternative radio channels such as
Radio Dreyeckland Radio Dreyeckland is a radio station in Mulhouse, Alsace, France. Another station with the same name operates in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Both stations are successors to Radio Verte Fessenheim which was started by opponents to the Fessenhei ...
and Radio Z in Nuremberg began to spring up. Thanks to the Super-8- film and video technology, even some private films could be made for little money. The Super-8 film rental
Contre-jour Contre-jour (; ) is a photographic technique in which the camera is pointing directly toward a light source, source of light, as well as an equivalent technique of painting. Description Before its use in photography, contre-jour was used in pa ...
and video groups like the Freiburg Media Workshop, the Hamburg Media Education Centre e.V. in Hamburg and the Autofocus Videowerkstatt e.V in Berlin were formed.


The Computer Scene

The German-speaking
Bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...
scene originates largely from the new socialist movements. Computer
Activists Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
took on themes like free access to the Internet as well as
data protection Data protection may refer to: * Information privacy, also known as data privacy * Data security {{Authority control ...
and created their own
Internet culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...
. With the spread of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
, public opposition found a new forum. A
citizen journalism Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism, grassroots journalism, or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the pro ...
of its own arose online, web users gave themselves names such as
Netizen The term ''netizen'' is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and ''citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.
and rules like
Netiquette Etiquette in technology, colloquially referred to as netiquette, is a term used to refer to the unofficial code of policies that encourage good behavior on the Internet which is used to regulate respect and polite behavior on social media platforms ...
were established.


New theoretical approaches

In an interview, Alexander Kluge described the potential of the internet as revolutionary: "The current tv or radio media content is broadcast hierarchically from above. As long as the online system is not in the hands of corporations, then the direction can be reversed. The internet manifests its potential as a raw material. It has not yet been fully formed. The heads of programme directors are deeply stuffed with their thoroughly conservative mandatory programme, including their ideology. It is too soon to celebrate, yet on YouTube, people make Enzensberger's theory of mass media become reality. A revolution is taking place online.
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
has many scattered but brilliant things, which are thoroughly new created without taking any instructions from above. This type of indirect public sphere poses a new challenge ref>''Süddeutsche Zeitung'': Interview von Willi Winkler: ''Alexander Kluge über Revolution,'' 29./20. August 2009.


References

{{Authority control Journalism Communication studies Public sphere