Do Crying Citizens Make Good Citizens?

The present paper is framed within current debates about the need to rethink citizenship, especially with respect to the question of whether there is a legitimate place for emotion in the public sphere. Emotion has not traditionally been seen as a key to good citizenship, and there has been a fair a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social semiotics 2006-06, Vol.16 (2), p.205-224
Main Authors: Pantti, Mervi, van Zoonen, Liesbet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizenship
Emotions
Homicide
Journalists
National identity
Netherlands
News
Political sociology
politics
Public Sphere
Semiotics
Social values
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The present paper is framed within current debates about the need to rethink citizenship, especially with respect to the question of whether there is a legitimate place for emotion in the public sphere. Emotion has not traditionally been seen as a key to good citizenship, and there has been a fair amount of aversion among media critics towards the "emotionalization" of the public sphere and spectacular outbursts of public emotion. This paper looks at the coverage of the murders of Dutch filmmaker and journalist Theo van Gogh in 2004 and Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, and shows that the issue is not simply whether emotions should be allowed in the public sphere or not, but rather how they are articulated and how they achieve different understandings of citizenship.
ISSN:1035-0330
1470-1219
DOI:10.1080/10350330600664797