DEMOCRACY WITHOUT A PUBLIC SPHERE

Recorded May 27, 2020. ‘People need agency and voice in a crisis.
This is a time when, more than ever, governments need to be open
and transparent, responsive and accountable to the people they are
seeking to protect ….’ – Secretary-General of the United Nations
António Guterres, António Guterres As large gatherings of people
are prohibited under the measures introduced to prevent the spread
of Covid-19, for many the established means of debate and protest
have been constrained. At the same time, decision-making processes
are increasingly opaque. For those historically marginalised, civic
engagement is becoming even more difficult. The pandemic is
creating new difficulties for democracies while exposing chronic,
long-term challenges. While Covid-19 has fuelled demands for
24-hour coverage and demonstrated the need for experts and reliable
content, the media industry is likewise struggling. The loss of
vital advertising revenue is placing unsustainable economic
pressure on already-stretched traditional news outlets. Control of
information and censorship is threatening the freedom of the press
in some regions. The pandemic has also been accompanied by a fake
news ‘infodemic’, spread primarily through social media platforms
and promoted by a few prominent leaders. With normal civic life
disrupted and journalism facing a potential crisis, this final
instalment in the five-part workshop series will ask if democracy
can function without the public sphere. Panelists Melody Barnes is
Co-Director for Policy and Public Affairs for the Democracy
Initiative at the University of Virginia, Dorothy Danforth Compton
Professor of Practice at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and a
Distinguished Fellow at the School of Law. From 2009 until January
2012, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White
House Domestic Policy Council. She also served as chief counsel to
Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
Bill Emmott is a writer and consultant best known for his 13 years
as editor-in-chief of The Economist. He is the author of 14 books
variously on Japan, Asia, the twentieth century and Italy, and
narrated and co-writer of a documentary film about Italy,
Girlfriend in a Coma. He is currently chair of the Trinity Long
Room Hub board. Fintan O’Toole is an Irish Times columnist and
writer. He was the winner of the 2017 European Press Prize and
Orwell Prize. His most recent works include Heroic Failure: Brexit
and Politics of Pain (2018) and The Politics of Pain: Postwar
England and the Rise of Nationalism (2019). Learn more at:
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/