Citizenship Participation

Definition: The ways in which citizens take part in affecting change in a political environment. Especially in political decisions that directly affect them.

Example: Riots, petitions, striking, writing to your congressperson. Etc. Rioting is what is examined in the text as a more relevant means to discuss the notion of the Public Screen.

From the text: The Seattle riots are noted as a change in citizenship participation due to the political environment of the situation. Transnational corporations were getting notably stronger than many governments around the world, and mass-media distribution of images was a better way to confront an issue of this magnitude than traditional methods of participating in local government. The riots were a way to gain visibility nation-wide through the news-coverage. This ties in with the overall analysis of The Public Screen as opposed to The Public Sphere in this article.

A direct quote that most directly reflects this paraphrased information: 

    "Second, global democratization and fair trade activists recognize the TV screen as the ccontemporary shape of the public sphere and the image event designed for mass media dissemination as an important contemporary form of citizen participation. Aside from writing letters to political representatives, attending public forums, and voting, the activists acknowledge the imperative to appear on the television screen alongside the staged image events of governments and corporations" (126 -- 127).