[Event Report] Democratic Communication in the Internet Age (Held on March 9, 2023)

2023.05.23

The Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) 2040 Independence and Self-Respect Project, " Platforms and the '2040 Problem' ," in collaboration with the Keio University Institute for Media and Communications Research ( MEDIACOM ) "The Future of Media Law in the Internet Age III" project, held a lecture on March 9, 2023, titled "Democratic Communication in the Internet Age." The event featured Professor Johannes Masing, a professor at the University of Freiburg and a former justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, as the guest speaker.

Photo: Attendee

Professor Masing was appointed as a professor at the University of Freiburg in 2006 and then as a justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in 2008. After his term expired in 2020, he has been researching the significance of constitutional law in the age of globalization from a transnational perspective at the university. He has also conducted joint research with Professor Hidemi Suzuki of MEDIACOM on the theme of "Theory and Practice of Interpreting Fundamental Rights in the Age of Globalization." This lecture was held during Professor Masing's visit to Japan as an Invitational Fellow for Research in Japan with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

In this lecture, the importance of communication in a democracy was discussed, and the problems of the current media environment and future prospects were presented. Communication through media has been remarkably transformed by the advancement of information technology, significantly altering the very form of democratic communication within nation-states. This has promoted the individualization and internationalization of political interests, posing an increasing threat to democracy in nation-states. The lecture concluded by emphasizing the need to consider how to achieve democracy in this new era of communication, rather than reverting to the past, and stressed the necessity of establishing new systems and regulations suited to the times.

The lecture and discussion were interpreted by Tomoaki Kurishima (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University), a member of the KGRI 2040 Independence and Self-Respect Project. Many members of the German Constitutional Case Law Study Group also participated.

The lecture summary is as follows (affiliations and titles are as of the time of the event).

I. Introduction

II. The Dissolution of Democratic Communication Groups

1. The dissolution of the traditional media order (Medienordnung)

2. The mutual separation of communication relationships within the state

3. The external diffusion of communication groups

III. The trend of dangerous exclusion (Ausgrenzungen)

1. The imagined "we" (Wir) within dissolving communication relationships

2. A rollback of substantive democracy through re-nationalization (Renationalisierung)?

3. The closure of communication spaces?

IV. Conclusion and Outlook

1. We cannot go back to the past—Considering democracy in an age of weakening communicative bonds

2. The need for regulation