*Umaimah Wahid, Raden Wahyu Utomo Martianto, Deddy Mulyana

Abstract:

Discursive spaces are necessary for maintaining democratic politics. Media serves as one of the key components in attempting to preserve the sanity of democracy and protect it from oligarchic practices entrenched in many political parties and the Indonesian government. The present research is aimed at understanding the representation of deliberative democracy in the public sphere by analysing the podcasts presented in the Akbar Faizal Uncensored (AFU) YouTube channel and examining the ideological practices that unfold in the podcasts. This study employed the qualitative method and critical paradigm approach while applying John Fiske’s semiotic analysis, with a focus on texts obtained from the AFU podcast. This podcast represents a possible case of deliberative democracy in practice. According to Jurgen Habermas, deliberative democracy pertains to all public policies carried out and legitimated through discourses held in public spheres.

Keywords: Discourse, deliberative-communicative, representation-ideology, digital public sphere