Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate

Chapter 2
The Public Sphere
“Strange as it may seem to an era governed by mass-market politics,” wrote
William Greider in Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy,
“democracy begins in human conversation. The simplest, least threatening
investment any citizen may make in democratic renewal is to begin talking with
other people.” Opportunities for conversation are not, however, evenly and randomly
distributed throughout society; they are, instead, manufactured and manipulated
through the management of social, economic and technological resources.
It is the contention of this thesis that the possibilities fostered by computer mediated
discussion provides an opportunity to revitalize political conversation in a
manner consistent with the goals of participatory democracy. This chapter uses the
concept of the “public sphere” to frame the discussion about the role of political
discourse in a democracy. Section 2.1 introduces the concept of the public sphere.
Section 2.2 on page 17 examines the notion of the “idealized” public sphere, and
discusses the conditions of its collapse, while section 2.3 on page 26 focuses on
the transformation from the idealized to the “liberal” public sphere. Section 2.4 on
page 31 suggests four dimensions in which public spheres can be examined. The
characteristics of the deliberative or formal public sphere are compared to those
of the non-deliberative or informal public sphere in Section 2.5 on page 40.
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