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The Internet is the New Public Sphere

            In my discussion of the above statement I will first of all examine the basic concept of the "public sphere- as understood by Jurgen Habermas. Then I will point out a few of the discrepancies between his ideal and the practice of the "old public sphere-. Finally I will attempt to show to what extent the Internet may or may not be closer to the ideals outlined by Habermas. I have felt that in the course of this scrutiny it would be appropriate to rely almost exclusively on sources available from the Internet (as well as my lecture notes).
             Habermas sees the public sphere as the essential vehicle for the furtherment of democracy. In his approach he combines the liberal view of democracy (i.e. to keep the state in check) and the participatory view that has been laid out by many philosophers and philosophies, from the driving ideals of the Greek polis, to Jean Jacques Rousseau and even Alasdair MacIntyre. The public sphere is a realm where a consensus-building discussion occurs among the participants, who overcome their at first subjectively biased views in favor of a rationally motivated agreement- (Habermas, quoted by Bass).
             "The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: people's public use of their reason."" (Habermas, quoted by Mandell).
             Habermas saw the rise of the public sphere in the 18th century coffee houses where the middle-class gathered, debated the state, read and conducted discussions. He also believed that this public sphere declined and politics was re-feudalised from the late 19th century and even more so in the 20th.


Essays Related to The Internet is the New Public Sphere

1. Another Space CYBERSPACE

First criticism is commodification of the public sphere by the commodification of Internet. To examine deeper, Rheingold argues that the cyberspace preempted public discussions because the Internet is used as a public sphere for people to create a public opinion and as it is commodified it is impossible to think about it as a public sphere. ... He analyzed certain areas that the cyberspace has influenced; he access, technological determinism, encryption, commodification, intellectual property, public sphere, decentralization, anarchy, gender and ethnicity. ... Habermass sees the cyberspace as...

  • Word Count: 1735
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2. Online Communities

It is a new form of publishing, of putting material out in the public view. ... Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell argues that many people suffer from a lack of "human moments" because of the new Internet technology. ... Do communities within cyberspace have the capability of serving as a series of new public spheres in contemporary Western nations? ... According to Habermas's (1989/1962) definition of the public sphere as a forum for rational debate within a sphere of competing ideas, public discourse is aimed at achieving consensus. ... Will online communities prove to be a new "public spher...

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3. A Free Press And A Democratic Public Sphere

A Free Press and Democratic Public Sphere "Burke said there were three estates in Parliament, but in the reporters' gallery yonder there sat a fourth estate more important than they all. ... In theory then, mass media is not only beneficial to a democratic public sphere; it is quite imperative. ... The media was not only beneficial to a democratic public sphere; it played a crucial role in creating one. ... Over the past century this system has spawned the assembly line, the telegraph, the telephone, the television and the Internet. ... And because this mass media exists in a free ...

  • Word Count: 1494
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4. Internet and the Political Arena

Fact checking, party affiliations, opinions, current legislation, and public court records are at our fingertips. ... Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter and a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that 66% of those social media users "or 39% of all American adults "have done at least one of eight civic or political activities with social media. ... Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter and a new survey by the Pew Research Center's ...

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5. globalisation

A global commercial media system is not entirely new. ... In the late 1990's three enormous firms, WPP group, Omnicom group and Inter-public, came to dominate the industry, along with another half dozen or so agencies, based mostly in New York, but also in London, Paris, Chicago and Tokyo. ... The crucial factor is making this democratic public sphere viable. ... This alone has made the Internet an extremely positive development. ... Being privately owned and relying on advertisers support is creating a "culture of entertainment" eroding the public sphere, creating with this an il-informe...

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6. Torts: Right to Privacy

The Supreme Court of the USA has defined the Internet as "an international network of interconnected computers .... a unique and wholly new medium of human communication."".The Internet has proved to be one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. ... While the general consensus among conservatives is that it is applicable in the same manner to the Internet as it is to , say , property , however Internet pundits disagree. ... PROJECT STRUCTURE RESEARCH QUESTION MODE OF CITATION A uniform mode of citation has been adopted and followed consistently throughout this...

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7. Art And The Mass Media

As "virtual" galleries and museums are available on the Internet, "real" museums are also adding electronic components and enhancements to their inventory. ... Despite these challenges and limitations, museums add value to their collections and their information delivery by reaching out to new audiences in new ways. ... And no doubt the museum store will be transplanted in its entirety to the new medium. The emergence of museums and other art venues into electronic environments is already benefiting traditional museums, the artists, and the public. As technologies for the creation, transl...

  • Word Count: 1623
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8. Globalization

Marshall McLuhen suggests that thanks to new technologies the physical place no longer gets in the way when creating a community. ... McLuhen promotes the notion of the Global Village', an idea that has had a recent resurgence due to the new possibilities of the Internet. ... Rheingold's work is based on the arguments of Jurgen Habermas who discusses the notion of the Public Sphere'. The Public Sphere is a space free from state control where citizens without censorship or recording by Governments and other official bodies can debate politics and policy. Rheingold and Habermas ...

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  • Approx Pages: 8
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9. Technology

Scientific journals, conspiracy theories, fine arts, and totally new media are being distributed on the internet. One form of information has been slow to get to the internet, and that is animation. ... The nature of the internet itself is not terribly complicated. ... The advent and development of new technologies has created a forum for public debate over the merits of representative democracy vs. direct democracy. ... Involuntary and voluntary action are both to be observed, for example, in the sphere of psychological collectivization. ...

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