International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

A public meeting is a gathering in which there are limited, if any, restrictions on who may participate. Public meetings, as an ideal, are a form of democracy (→ Discourse, Deliberative ; Public Sphere ), but are often viewed as frustrating and futile. Labeling an event as a meeting calls attention to the communicative dimensions of this activity. Language and social interaction scholars study public meetings as situations in which identity, social action, and culture, among other practices, are enacted (→ Language and Social Interaction ). Two or, more commonly, three participants are required as a minimum for constituting a meeting. However, not all gatherings are meetings; e.g., it would be unusual to call a gathering of friends a meeting. A meeting is explicitly framed as such by participants. Public meetings obviously involve the public as observers or participants and usually have a specific structure and rules for participation (e.g., parliamentary procedures or Robert's Rules of Order ). The purposes of public meetings may include sharing information with or gathering information and opinions from the public. Public meetings have several audiences that may not even be physically present during a meeting but are involved through mediated forms of communication, such as print or television broadcast. Several types of meetings fall within the domain of public meetings, ... log in or subscribe to read full text