Slavko Splichal
Biographic Data
| ID | 310595 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Slavko Splichal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Slavko |
| FAMILY NAME | Splichal |
| SIGNATURE | SPLICHAL S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ljubljana |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7678-2676 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Rise of Contractual Publics
The paper examines modern re-conceptualisations and re-contextualisations of publicness, proposing theoretical and empirical advancements in its conceptualisation. It critically analyses two significant developments following the English translation of Habermas's seminal work, "Strukturwandel der ffentlichkeit." On the one hand, the book (re)affirmed the key role of communication and media in democratic politics and instigated a broad acceptance …
Refugees and (Im)Migrants
The article analyzes media coverage of migration and refugees from 2015 to 2022 in five selected European countries during the European migration crisis, the adoption of international agreements for their (political) solution, and the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Reporting on migration is found to be primarily shaped by national political context and reflects the most important issues of the time, often portraying migration as a p…
Between (Conceptual) Crisis and Critique
Different understandings of what it means to be critical in the social sciences, especially in terms of the distinction between instrumental and reflexive knowledge, can be illustrated by the ongoing conceptual disputes about the critical epistemic value of public opinion and the public sphere as the main instantiations of publicness. The concept of the public sphere has gained prominence in media and communication theory, filling a void created …
Socialist Yugoslavia’s Efforts to Democratize International and Intercultural Communication
In this article, I present an annotated (re)reading of some of my research and writings on mass communication and the development of socialist democracy in Yugoslavia published during the last two decades of the existence of this multinational federation before its sudden and violent collapse. The article is conceived as a reappraisal of key ideas and results of some empirical research I designed and conducted in the 1970s and 1980s until Sloveni…
Book notes
The public sphere in the twilight zone of publicness
The article discusses the reasons and conditions for the rise and fall of the popularity of the public sphere concept in scholarly discourse in four parts. The first part examines the peculiar circumstances of the emergence of the concept of the public sphere, and its rapid and widespread adoption in the social sciences. The second part discusses the complexity of the concept “Öffentlichkeit” and its English proxy “the public sphere,” and the con…
In data we (don't) trust
This article seeks to address current debates comparing polls and opinion mining as empirically based figuration models of public opinion in the light of in-depth intellectual debates on the role and nature of public opinion that began after the French Revolution and the controversy over public opinion spurred by the invention of polls. Issues of historical quantification and re-conceptualisation of public opinion are addressed in four parts. The…
In Memoriam
For all of us who knew him, Jay was a legend, a brilliant mind, a lovely person, and a truly remarkable scholar with a razor-sharp intellect up until the end. His latest, and unfortunately final, a
Kriza javnosti in podružbljanje novinarstva
The Liquefaction of Publicness
Media Research in Socialist Slovenia/Yugoslavia
This afterword to “A Marxist Approach to Communication Freedom” reveals some features of the development of communication theories and empirical research in socialist Slovenia and Yugoslavia. The field started to develop in 1960s in the framework of other academic disciplines, mainly political sciences and partly sociology, but soon became the target of ideological criticism for “the lack of Marxist foundations” in the social sciences in general,…
A Marxist Approach to Communication Freedom
This article is an abridged translation of the section “Produkcija in komuniciranje: nujnost in svoboda” (Production and communication: necessity and freedom) of Slavko Splichal’s book Množično komuniciranje med svobodo in odtujitvijo (Mass Communication between Freedom and Alienation, pp. 123-138), published in Slovene in 1981 after it was defended as a doctoral thesis in 1979. The article, which was among the earliest on its topic, starts with …
Liquefaction of Publicness
Tönnies, Ferdinand (1855–1936)
Ferdinand Tönnies is the founder of German sociology as an academic discipline and author of the most famous conceptual dichotomy in sociology, Gemeinschaft–Gesellschaft . In his approach to the study of society, reconciling the organic and social‐contract conceptions of society, he distinguished between three branches of general sociology: social biology, social psychology, and special sociology – “special sociology” corresponding to what is now…
Deprofessionalization
Deprofessionalization denotes the weakening of professions as they decline in autonomy, status, power, and professional identity. It is conceptualized along five essential dimensions that contribute to the elimination of boundaries between members of the profession and “outsiders,” followed by the decline in authority of the profession: (1) routinization, automation, and algorithmization of work and knowledge processing; (2) social diffusion, dem…
Media Beyond Socialism
Paradigm(s) Lost? Islands of Critical Media Research in Communication Journals
Disputes over critical theory and administrative research have marked media research community for almost eight decades, but have shed little light on the issues that separate them or potentially bind them together. A network analysis of articles as clusters of interconnected concepts published in eight prominent communication journals during the period of seventy years indicates that coexistence of critical theory and empirical social inquiry is…
Publicness, Publicity
“Publicness” has been considered one of the fundamental principles of democratic governance by normative theories of public opinion since the late 18th century. The idea of publicness arose in the context of the interaction of civil society and the state. As an ethical principle referring to discursive visibility, publicness was central to the critical concept of public opinion from its very first conceptualizations. In contemporary democracies, …
Privacy
At least since Aristotle's distinction between the public domain of political activity ( polis ) and the private domain of the household ( oikos ), privacy stands in dialectical tension with publicness. Since the earliest conceptualizations, privacy has also been closely related to “suspicious” secrecy. Assuming that privacy and publicness are opposite but complementary to each other, privacy could be defined as the protected sphere or condition …
Journalism between de-professionalisation and democratisation
The article reflects on contemporary processes of de-professionalisation of journalism, its consequences for democratic processes and challenges to citizen journalism. It is argued that both the dilemmas of mainstream journalism and the emergence of citizen journalism are consequences of an array of evolving factors having to do with complex transformations in the media landscape and its industries, professional and ‘leisured’ content creation, e…
Journalism and Journalists
Public Sphere and the Media
Media Research Paradigms
Media and communication research is often believed to represent one of the youngest research areas in the social sciences, but the first essays discussing the nature and social functions of newspapers were written long before the birth of the modern social sciences. The great variety in forms of communication is also reflected in the diversity of research approaches and methods. This chapter deals with these differences and diversities in a broad…
In memory of Professor Hanno Hardt (1934–2011)
Additional informationNotes on contributorsSlavko SplichalContact address: EURICOM, Kardeljeva pl. 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Javnost—The Public , Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture
With its first 2009 (April) issue, Javnost—The Public, journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture enters its 16th year of existence. The quarterly—the flagship of the Institute—was established in 1994 as an interdisciplinary journal in the social sciences to address problems of the public sphere on international and interdisciplinary levels, to stimulate the development of theory and research in the field, and to help underst…
Journalism between de-professionalisation and democratisation
The article reflects on contemporary processes of de-professionalisation of journalism, its consequences for democratic processes and challenges to citizen journalism. It is argued that both the dilemmas of mainstream journalism and the emergence of citizen journalism are consequences of an array of evolving factors having to do with complex transformations in the media landscape and its industries, professional and ‘leisured’ content creation, e…
In search of a strong European public sphere
The present-day popular advocacy of the 'European public sphere' is not only a normative-theoretical endeavour, but largely also an expression of the general (political) dissatisfaction with a neoliberal domination of economy over other political issues essential for democratic citizenship in the 'New Europe', or a reaction to an imbalance between the intense economic and rather sloppy political integration, and the democratic deficit in the deci…
Why Be Critical
Almost 60 years ago, Lasswell (1949) asked, “Why be quantitative?” and vigorously argued that “the study of politics can be advanced by the quantitative analysis of political discourse ... [b]ecause of the scientific and policy gains that can come of it” (pp. 40, 52). He suggested that severe “limitations of qualitative analysis,” such as imprecision and arbitrariness, could be overcome by quantification. A decade later, Lazarsfeld (1957, p. 41) …
The public sphere in the twilight zone of publicness
The article discusses the reasons and conditions for the rise and fall of the popularity of the public sphere concept in scholarly discourse in four parts. The first part examines the peculiar circumstances of the emergence of the concept of the public sphere, and its rapid and widespread adoption in the social sciences. The second part discusses the complexity of the concept “Öffentlichkeit” and its English proxy “the public sphere,” and the con…
Media privatization and democratization in Central-Eastern Europe
Deprofessionalization
Deprofessionalization denotes the weakening of professions as they decline in autonomy, status, power, and professional identity. It is conceptualized along five essential dimensions that contribute to the elimination of boundaries between members of the profession and “outsiders,” followed by the decline in authority of the profession: (1) routinization, automation, and algorithmization of work and knowledge processing; (2) social diffusion, dem…
Bentham, Kant, and the right to communicate
Bentham favored a free press as an instrument of public control of the state, in the interest of the general happiness. Kant favored free public discussion as an instrument for the development and expression of autonomous rationality. But a free press embodied in the property rights of the owners of the press may well fail to achieve either Benthamite or Kantian goals. Such goals lead to a personal right to communicate rather than to a corporate …
The principle of publicity, public use of reason and social control
This article examines the intellectual history of the concept of ‘publicity’, originally defined by Immanuel Kant as the transcendental formula of public justice and the principle of the public use of reason, but later largely subsumed under the concept of ‘freedom of the press’. The notion of the press as the Fourth Estate/Power was a valid concept and legitimate form of the institutionalization of the principle of publicity in the period when n…
Manufacturing the (In)visible
The paper develops the argument of two faces of censorship as a form of symbolic violence over individuals directed either inward or outward. In both instances, the resistance to disclosure and an effort to keep things hidden are normally complemented by strategic control over the process of making things visible. Silence is usually considered a sign of censorship, but in reality it can indicate not only the suppression of, but also a resistance …
Journalistic education and professional socialisation
Refugees and (Im)Migrants
The article analyzes media coverage of migration and refugees from 2015 to 2022 in five selected European countries during the European migration crisis, the adoption of international agreements for their (political) solution, and the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Reporting on migration is found to be primarily shaped by national political context and reflects the most important issues of the time, often portraying migration as a p…
Between (Conceptual) Crisis and Critique
Different understandings of what it means to be critical in the social sciences, especially in terms of the distinction between instrumental and reflexive knowledge, can be illustrated by the ongoing conceptual disputes about the critical epistemic value of public opinion and the public sphere as the main instantiations of publicness. The concept of the public sphere has gained prominence in media and communication theory, filling a void created …
In data we (don't) trust
This article seeks to address current debates comparing polls and opinion mining as empirically based figuration models of public opinion in the light of in-depth intellectual debates on the role and nature of public opinion that began after the French Revolution and the controversy over public opinion spurred by the invention of polls. Issues of historical quantification and re-conceptualisation of public opinion are addressed in four parts. The…
Indigenization Versus Ideologization
This article analyses the position and development patterns of communication science on the periphery and examines the factors that may explain why it lags behind the progress made by intellectual centres in more developed scholarly communities. The analysis is concerned with the differences between the centre and the periphery in the growth of paradigms for disciplinary development, the role of communication theories and empirical research, and …
Public opinion' and the controversies in communication science
Social Functions of Television Advertising in Socialism
Public opinion' and the controversies in communication science
Critical Theory and Empirical Critique in Mass Communication Research
Integration and Differentiation in International Sociology
The growing differentiation within the International Sociological Association (ISA) requires different forms of integration among Research Committees (RCs). The aim of this paper is to reveal some patterns of integrational versus differentiational activities and produce an organizational and conceptual typology of RCs. The problem is approached by different clustering methods: Ward's hierarchical clustering, local optimization methods and hierarc…
Indigenization Versus Ideologization
This article analyses the position and development patterns of communication science on the periphery and examines the factors that may explain why it lags behind the progress made by intellectual centres in more developed scholarly communities. The analysis is concerned with the differences between the centre and the periphery in the growth of paradigms for disciplinary development, the role of communication theories and empirical research, and …
Journalistic education and professional socialisation
Niico — dead or alive? MacBride Round Table on Communication in Harare, 27-9 October 1989
Media privatization and democratization in Central-Eastern Europe
Le transfert de l'économie de l'information vers l'Europe de l'Est
The existence of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe during the 1960's, a time when telecommunications and information systems were expanding rapidly in the West, led to a considerable technological lag. With the opening up of Eastern Europe, governments are faced with huge difficulties. A weak economy hinders large-scale catching-up programmes and the absence of technico-economic elites compromises privatisation, often considered as the mirac…
Communication and democracy
Imitation and Distrust Hamper Democratisation of the Media in East-Central Europe
In my book Media beyond Socialism (1994), I have challenged the idea that burial of the authoritarian practices of the former socialist countries would automatically bring about the rise of democratic political and media systems. My doubt that the series of structural changes that had taken place was genuine democratisation was largely provoked by the fact that the East-Central European (ECE) countries were caught up in hasty imitation of Western…
The principle of publicity, public use of reason and social control
This article examines the intellectual history of the concept of ‘publicity’, originally defined by Immanuel Kant as the transcendental formula of public justice and the principle of the public use of reason, but later largely subsumed under the concept of ‘freedom of the press’. The notion of the press as the Fourth Estate/Power was a valid concept and legitimate form of the institutionalization of the principle of publicity in the period when n…
Bentham, Kant, and the right to communicate
Bentham favored a free press as an instrument of public control of the state, in the interest of the general happiness. Kant favored free public discussion as an instrument for the development and expression of autonomous rationality. But a free press embodied in the property rights of the owners of the press may well fail to achieve either Benthamite or Kantian goals. Such goals lead to a personal right to communicate rather than to a corporate …
Communication Research and the Need for Shifting Paradigms - Again
Manufacturing the (In)visible
The paper develops the argument of two faces of censorship as a form of symbolic violence over individuals directed either inward or outward. In both instances, the resistance to disclosure and an effort to keep things hidden are normally complemented by strategic control over the process of making things visible. Silence is usually considered a sign of censorship, but in reality it can indicate not only the suppression of, but also a resistance …
In search of a strong European public sphere
The present-day popular advocacy of the 'European public sphere' is not only a normative-theoretical endeavour, but largely also an expression of the general (political) dissatisfaction with a neoliberal domination of economy over other political issues essential for democratic citizenship in the 'New Europe', or a reaction to an imbalance between the intense economic and rather sloppy political integration, and the democratic deficit in the deci…
Why Be Critical
Almost 60 years ago, Lasswell (1949) asked, “Why be quantitative?” and vigorously argued that “the study of politics can be advanced by the quantitative analysis of political discourse ... [b]ecause of the scientific and policy gains that can come of it” (pp. 40, 52). He suggested that severe “limitations of qualitative analysis,” such as imprecision and arbitrariness, could be overcome by quantification. A decade later, Lazarsfeld (1957, p. 41) …
New’ Media, ‘Old’ Theories
■ Since its earliest conceptualizations, publicity was believed to contribute significantly to the democratic social order; it normatively legitimized the press and other media as constitutive of the public and public opinion. Yet all the ‘old’ mass media rooted in the property rights of their owners failed to enhance and complement the corporate freedom of the press with technologically-feasible actions towards equalizing citizens’ opportunities…
Javnost—The Public , Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture
With its first 2009 (April) issue, Javnost—The Public, journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture enters its 16th year of existence. The quarterly—the flagship of the Institute—was established in 1994 as an interdisciplinary journal in the social sciences to address problems of the public sphere on international and interdisciplinary levels, to stimulate the development of theory and research in the field, and to help underst…
In memory of Professor Hanno Hardt (1934–2011)
Additional informationNotes on contributorsSlavko SplichalContact address: EURICOM, Kardeljeva pl. 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Media Research Paradigms
Media and communication research is often believed to represent one of the youngest research areas in the social sciences, but the first essays discussing the nature and social functions of newspapers were written long before the birth of the modern social sciences. The great variety in forms of communication is also reflected in the diversity of research approaches and methods. This chapter deals with these differences and diversities in a broad…
Journalism and Journalists
Public Sphere and the Media
Publicness, Publicity
“Publicness” has been considered one of the fundamental principles of democratic governance by normative theories of public opinion since the late 18th century. The idea of publicness arose in the context of the interaction of civil society and the state. As an ethical principle referring to discursive visibility, publicness was central to the critical concept of public opinion from its very first conceptualizations. In contemporary democracies, …
Privacy
At least since Aristotle's distinction between the public domain of political activity ( polis ) and the private domain of the household ( oikos ), privacy stands in dialectical tension with publicness. Since the earliest conceptualizations, privacy has also been closely related to “suspicious” secrecy. Assuming that privacy and publicness are opposite but complementary to each other, privacy could be defined as the protected sphere or condition …
Political science (29 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Law (24 works) · Politics (20 works) · Law (15 works) · Social Media and Politics (13 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Social science (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Public sphere (10 works)