5. Cultural Citizenship in Harmony and Dissonance: Coke Studio and the YouTube Public Sphere

This chapter focuses on how counterpublic sphere manifests itself in the comments section of Coke Studio Pakistan’s YouTube channel. Unseen in the mainstream media, the comments section allows encounters between Indians and Pakistanis, nations separated by visa restrictions and volatile borders. The findings highlight that, as cultural citizens, audiences interact in an unregulated space where subjects that are often restricted for debate among political elites have become open to episodic deliberation among the people. The aspect of casual encounters in YouTube’s comments is also through the lens of emotional citizenship. The pro-civic interactions also draw attention to the importance of such spaces (YouTube) in states that refuse to value the public’s opinion on issues of sociopolitical nature.