Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate

CHAPTER 7. THE EXPANDING PUBLIC SPHERE 103
open access to anyone. 1 In a newsgroup, the force of the argument is more likely
to be the sole source of discussion – rather than the social status attributes of
the arguer – than in any other informal settings. Newsgroups provide unfettered
access to the informal zone of the public sphere. There are no restrictions on
entry or exit; individuals can and do move freely in and out of the conversation,
both without sanction on themselves and without impact on others. There are no
editorial forces limiting what topics may be brought up or discussed. In other
words, there is a formal sense of equality of access inherent in the technology of
the unmoderated group.
As such, the talk.abortion newsgroup is an important part of the informal zone
of the public sphere dedicated to a democratic resolution of the abortion issue.
The newsgroup provides an opportunity for ordinary citizens to discuss the issue
outside of the boundaries of reality and respect imposed on the deliberative
public spheres. In the deliberative public spheres, representatives are more or
less limited to choosing among pre-selected alternatives, and required to restrain
their emotions in the interest of resolving this and other issues. Participants in the
newsgroup are under no such restriction.
The newsgroup provides opportunities for citizens to fulfill a number of functions
of political talk, including agenda setting, exploring mutuality, affection and affiliation,
and community building (Barber 1984). Participants are able to shape
the agenda, and are not required to keep the topics under discussion to a predetermined,
pre-selected set of options. Habermas (1996) identified this capability
as one of the structural advantages of the informal over the formal zone of
the public sphere. In shaping the agenda, participants have the potential to explore
the “passions that make two (or more) separate identities one single we,”
(Barber 1984, 184); that is, to uncover common ground and shared expectations.
In addition, participants in newsgroups develop a sense of affection and affiliation
with one another through their exchanges. These actions contribute to a sense of
community building, to the “ the development of a citizenry capable of genuinely
public thinking and political judgment and thus able to envision a common future
in terms of genuinely common goods” (Barber 1984, 194).
The assessment of the talk.abortion newsgroup over the course of the year found
1 That is to say, to anyone who has access to a computer and the Internet, and who has the skills
enabling them to read and to write. And although access is today clearly distributed by social class,
all available data suggest that this bias has weakened during the past five years, and will continue
to do so in the future, to the point that access to computer networks becomes as ubiquitous as
access to the telephone network or the broadcast television system.