Media technologies and publics

“Making and Shaping Publics: Discourse and Technology” is composed of five different positions on how media technologies shape publics, and how new and emerging publics construct identities and strategic goals. This section of Contemporary Publics begins with an introduction where media technologies are utilised to facilitate progressive change. This facilitative role is examined in subsequent chapters, where publics can unite around discourse and technology that enables communication and identity creation. The negative consequences of technologies in making and shaping publics are also examined, particularly with respect to privacy. Overall, various responses have emerged from the ways in which media and discursive practices attempt to fold us into particular kinds of publics. The chapters in this section observe how publics react to forms of control.