Spectres of New Media Technologies in the Public Sphere
Article

New media technologies are mechanisms of representation that reveal the relationship of technology and society.  In the deconstructive politics of Jacques Derrida, the social and technological ontology of new media technologies produce spectres. Spectres introduce doubts and instability in dominant discourses and modes of representation in the public sphere; this becomes possible through iteration, which refers to the transformation of hegemonic authority through repetition of its fundamental terms of identification.

The essay presents a critique of new media technologies in the context of the Philippines. It is inspired by the work of Derrida, in his deconstructive reading of Marx’s spectres, and Jürgen Habermas, whose theory of the public sphere offered an implicit appraisal of spectres. This examination of spectres will answer the question: what are the political possibilities of new media technologies in the public sphere?