Harnessing the power of listening for social change in a disrupted media ecology

Abstract

Motivated by the fact that voice has been seemingly projected above listening when it comes to democratic participation, the chapter maps the literature on the listening theory to establish how the concept of listening can facilitate discourses in three contexts – public discourse, journalism, and social media. They argue that public discourses that take listening into account could yield better results if all parties are ready to listen to the different perspectives of an issue and find common ground. The two kinds of listening related to journalism - receptivity and recognition - were found to ensure that media content, editorial, and production processes are power-sensitive and responsive to the inequalities and conflicts that shape speaking and listening relationships. Theodora and Anthea also attempt to examine other dynamics of listening among individuals and corporations in the digitized participatory media sphere in light of the listening theory. Consequently, they propose another mode of online media listening – interface listening.