Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate
Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate
Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
CHAPTER 5. MEASURING THE PUBLIC SPHERE 75<br />
sphere requires that participants stay engaged with <strong>the</strong> topic at hand. This presents<br />
some difficulties in measurement, for it requires a subjective assessment or definition<br />
of what is “relevant” and what is “not relevant.” One of <strong>the</strong> functions of<br />
political talk, as discussed in Chapter 2, is to allow individuals to set <strong>the</strong>ir own<br />
agendas; that is, to decide for <strong>the</strong>mselves what is relevant what should be talked<br />
about. By predetermining certain topics to represent high quality, and o<strong>the</strong>rs to<br />
not represent high quality, removes some of <strong>the</strong> power of agenda setting from <strong>the</strong><br />
participants. Never<strong>the</strong>less, it seems reasonable to suggest that within some broad<br />
boundaries, an informal zone of <strong>the</strong> public sphere, formed in this case to discuss<br />
abortion, that does not feature conversation about abortion, cannot be said to meet<br />
<strong>the</strong> demands of a quality discourse. The ideal state of <strong>the</strong> informal public sphere<br />
would have all participants talking always about abortion related matters. To <strong>the</strong><br />
extent that <strong>the</strong> actual practice of <strong>the</strong> participants deviates from this state, <strong>the</strong> public<br />
sphere does not fulfill this particular dimension of <strong>the</strong> quality function. Quality is<br />
operationalized as <strong>the</strong> proportion of messages that are concerned with <strong>the</strong> abortion<br />
issue.