This article investigates how communities experiencing poverty can exercise their deliberative agency in a media-saturated society. While empirical research on deliberative democracy tends to focus on the role of mini-publics in giving low-income households the opportunity in small-scale, carefully designed forums to characterise, justify, and reflect on their views, such conception of deliberative agency gets lost in the picture once deliberative theory begins thinking in systemic terms. This article proposes a remedy to this theoretical and analytical gap by characterising the hypermediated character of the deliberative system and identifying possibilities for communities experiencing poverty to maximise the affordances of digital media for them to make an appearance in the public sphere, speak in their own voice, and carry the embodied and storied character of their arguments. I present two illustrative cases drawing on the experiences of families with low income directly affected by the bloody war on drugs in the Philippines who utilise photojournalism and online music streaming to break in the public sphere and engage in systemic deliberations about the drug war. These examples demonstrate how communities experiencing poverty express their deliberative agency amidst fear, trauma and deprivation and democratise a media-saturated deliberative system under an increasingly authoritarian regime. Overall, this article hopes to strengthen the link between normative media studies and democratic theory and offering possibilities for reforming the public sphere that recognises the poor’s deliberative agency.

中文翻译：

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在媒体饱和的社会中维护弱势社区的协商代理权

本文调查了经历贫困的社区如何在媒体饱和的社会中行使他们的协商代理权。虽然关于协商民主的实证研究倾向于关注小公众在为低收入家庭提供机会在小规模、精心设计的论坛中描述、证明和反思他们的观点方面所起的作用，但这种协商代理的概念却迷失了在图片中，一旦审议理论开始以系统的方式思考。本文提出了弥补这一理论和分析差距的方法，方法是描述协商系统的过度中介特征，并确定贫困社区的可能性，以最大限度地利用数字媒体，让他们出现在公共领域，用自己的声音说话, 并带有他们论点的具体化和故事化特征。我介绍了两个说明性案例，这些案例借鉴了菲律宾血腥禁毒战争直接影响的低收入家庭的经验，他们利用新闻摄影和在线音乐流媒体闯入公共领域并参与有关禁毒战争的系统性审议。这些例子展示了经历贫困的社区如何在恐惧、创伤和剥夺中表达他们的协商机构，并在日益独裁的政权下使媒体饱和的协商制度民主化。总体而言，本文希望加强规范媒体研究与民主理论之间的联系，并为改革承认穷人协商机构的公共领域提供可能性。我介绍了两个说明性案例，这些案例借鉴了菲律宾血腥禁毒战争直接影响的低收入家庭的经验，他们利用新闻摄影和在线音乐流媒体闯入公共领域并参与有关禁毒战争的系统性审议。这些例子展示了经历贫困的社区如何在恐惧、创伤和剥夺中表达他们的协商机构，并在日益独裁的政权下使媒体饱和的协商制度民主化。总体而言，本文希望加强规范媒体研究与民主理论之间的联系，并为改革承认穷人协商机构的公共领域提供可能性。我介绍了两个说明性案例，这些案例借鉴了菲律宾血腥禁毒战争直接影响的低收入家庭的经验，他们利用新闻摄影和在线音乐流媒体闯入公共领域并参与有关禁毒战争的系统性审议。这些例子展示了经历贫困的社区如何在恐惧、创伤和剥夺中表达他们的协商机构，并在日益独裁的政权下使媒体饱和的协商制度民主化。总体而言，本文希望加强规范媒体研究与民主理论之间的联系，并为改革承认穷人协商机构的公共领域提供可能性。