Their Publics and Ours: PSAs and the

Constructions of Publicness

presentersBrian Ganter + Lori MacIntosh

Imagining Citizenship: Digital Literacies Symposium,

Nov. 2-6, 2009

Part I: What is the “Public” in PSAs?

Defining the PSA: the Public Service Announcement

Part II: What is the “Public” in PSAs?

Where is the PSA Coming From and Where is it Going?

who is a

public?

who is a

what is a public?

who is a

what is a public?

where is the

what binds a public together?

reason ?

emotion ?

memory ?

bodies ?

ideological interests ?

national publics

activist publics

global publics

national publics

"[T]he national culture industry is also in the business of generating paramnesias, images that organize consciousness, not by way of explicit propaganda, but by replacing and simplifying memories people actually have with image traces of political experience about which people can have political feelings that link them to other citizens and to patriotism. – L. Berlant, The Queen of America Goes to

Washington City, 57

activist publics

global publics

Conclusion: The PSA and its Futures