Habermas’ Public sphere: from the 18th century to today societies Public sphere is a necessary concept to understand our connected world. All the more today with new technologies, we are inter-connected and share a lot through Internet. Jürgen Habermas has conceptualized the public sphere as a place where debates take place and ideas are shared. It is useful in understanding our very connected societies. The question is to acknowledge how to apply his theory to social media. Internet changed citizen’s relationship with the media and created a new way of doing what the author thought of as a principle of democracy: rational-critical debate. How relevant is the public sphere concept in today societies? We will expose Habermas’ concept and critic it, and then see how we talk about public sphere in a hyper connected world. In feudal world, debate was a private affair for nobility and church (Curran, 1997). There was no need for any public sphere. Habermas saw its emergence in the second half oh the 18th century, principally in France, Britain, and Germany. He said that it is due to four big factors. First the appearance of the “printed world” (McLuhan,1995) leading to reading pamphlets or newspapers that gave the possibility to have an opinion easily. Then a growing trade and commerce created more social interactions between the citizens. The early forms of representative government were also a determinant, bringing people to discuss politics through a public sphere. But for Habermas, the principal element is the emergence of an independent middle class, discussing (amongst themselves) “independent of government [areas] and also enjoying autonomy from partisan economic forces, which is dedicated to rational debate... ... middle of paper ... ...2006. Wealth of Networks. New Haven: Yale University Press Pierre Bourdieu . 1984. Questions de sociologie. Paris: Editions de Minuit Karl R. Popper, 1971. The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1: The Spell of Plato. 5 Revised Edition. Princeton University Press Lewis H. Lapham (New Introduction By) Marshall McLuhan (Author), 1995. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 3rd Printing, 1995 Edition. The M.I.T. Press. Malcolm Gladwell . The Guardian. 3 October 2010. Jürgen Habermas . 1962. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Karl Marx. 1867. Das Kapital. Berlin. James Curran, 1997. Power Without Responsibility: Press, Broadcasting and the Internet in Britain. 5 Edition. Routledge. James Curran, 2011. Media and Society. 5th Revised edition Edition. Bloomsbury Academic
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Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.
one cannot speak of a public sphere in the Middle Ages, but rather an existence of a so-called
Newspaper, radio, film, television. These are only a few of the various forms media can take. From the moment we open our eyes to the instant we shut them, we are surrounded by media and absorb the information it hurls at us in an osmosis-like manner. The news ranges from the latest terror attack and political scandals to supposed UFO sightings and scandals involving sandals. We as an audience tend to focus more on the message the media relays rather than on the medium in which it is presented to us. “What?” is asked more than “How?” The key claim Marshall McLuhan makes in his book, The Medium is the Massage, is that the form of media influences how the message is perceived. Let’s illustrate this with a scenario: it’s eight o’clock in the morning.
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The public sphere has been falsely represented as a virtual place where one can share and debate opinions; ...
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In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, he proposed that we focus on the way each medium changes cultures and traditions and reshapes social life, rather than the content. He describes the content of the medium as a “juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” (McLuhan, 32). To him, focusing on the medium was important because he believed that different types of media change the balance of our senses. We start isolating and highlighting different senses.
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...kfurt school, does not accept Adorno's solution. He believes Adorno is being too nihilistic in [continued next page] allowing no way to escape instrumental rationality. Habermas's main philosophical project has been to resolve this problem, to allow for the possibility of substantive rationality (i.e. rationality that is not aimed at power and domination but, rather, validity) and, thus, to save the project of the Enlightenment. The result is a theory of open communication that is aimed at an 'ideal speech situation', that is, at a discourse not tainted by instrumental aims.
Social media can impact a life of an individual at many levels. On social media, each individual has the power to be influential and important. There is a freedom of expression on soci...
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