THE CONTESTATION OF PUBLIC SPACE : STATE, MASS MEDIA, CITIZENS

Abstract

This study attempts to explicate the role of mass media and its implications on democratic representation between state and citizens in Singapore. In modern democratic society, the mass media is the primary medium through which information flows between the state and its citizens. This mediation is not neutral, as statements are represented in different discursive domains, and in this representation, they are transformed. Public space, which is seen as a unique conception of the public sphere and civil society, becomes a field for competition among interests, its participants mediating between the political interests of the state on one hand, while claiming a special mission of representing citizens' democratic public opinion on the other. In the process of this study, we will uncover these inherent tensions in the contestation of public space between state, media and citizens. As the interface of contestation, public space is the arena where the three key social actors define, impose, accept, negotiate or transgress the boundaries of public space in order to make sense of their lived realities, By deconstructing the ways in which these boundaries are created or re-created, this study hopes to evaluate the implications for public discourse in mediated democracy.