Danske intellektuelle på Facebook - eksemplificeret ved Svend Brinkmann og Carsten Jensen

Abstract

The article analyses how two unique Danish intellectual voices, Professor Svend Brinkmann and writer Carsten Jensen, use Facebook as a platform. It argues, on the one hand, that Facebook offers direct access to the two intellectuals’ followers and readers but on the other hand also creates communicative challenges. The article asks in particular whether the Brinkmann and Jensen follow or depart form the communicative practices afforded by the platform. After an initial review of the literature about the public intellectual, the analysis of Brinkmann’s and Jensen’s use of Facebook shows how Brinkman manages to invent new short forms which grant him extended public impact, whereas Jensen uses Facebook to extend his work as a polemist. Moreover, the analysis argues that both intellectuals perform a private self and position themselves vertically and authoritatively in relation to their followers. In addition, like most other Facebook users, they also promote themselves and their activities. Habermas once pointed to social media’s ambivalences vis à vis the intellectual. The article’s analysis substantiates this claim.