The feminist cable collective as public sphere activity

<jats:p>This article highlights the efforts of a group that produces, under the aegis of the National Organization for Women, a feminist public affairs series cablecast on cable television public access channels. The question addressed here is whether this work, called ‘New Directions for Women’, can be seen as representing agency in the public sphere, assuming that something like the public sphere is indispensable to democratic political practice. The research finds that public access cable television does provide viable opportunities for feminist ‘content’, for activist-minded news, discussion, and criticism of the economy sphere, the state, and family. Yet, publicness is at odds with certain feminist principles, at least as these have been practiced in feminist journalism (i.e. directed at the enclave), in large part because the technology constrains enactment of feminist modes of news production.</jats:p>