Democracy in Practice: Online Public Sphere, Public Discussion and Communicative Action in Iranian Online Social Networking

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The Statement of the Problem1

Objectives of the Research4

Significance of the Research4

Research Questions5

Research Methodology6

Content Analysis6

Data Collection7

Population7

References8

Research Proposal

The Statement of the Problem

The concept of public spheres was originated by Habermas, which means a discursive space which involves individuals and groups into a discussion based on mutual interests and also at time searching a common judgment where possible (Habermas, 1989). As described by Habermas, these spheres were strictly bourgeois in nature. The original concept of public spheres included three major components. First was that the public spheres were created through public discourse, often promoting discussions. Secondly, it represents a new avenue for discourse for a number of people who have been excluded earlier. Lastly, the ideas presented and discussed through public discourse in public spheres were viewed as the basis for certain qualities instead of the social standing of the speaker. It has been explained as a lively debate focusing multiple levels within any society (Shirky, 2011). Public Spheres is considered to be a platform that enables public discourse, through which people living in a society deliberately share their common affairs; therefore, it is institutionalized as a field of discursive interaction. Public spheres were soon considered as the general public discussions, based on rational debates and discourses leading to some communicative action.

The communicative action theory is a theory based on the social theory that focuses on the dialogic relation. This theory talks about the social system in which mutual communicative action between individuals is an essential criterion in social relations. Moreover, it theory focuses on reaching an agreement according to rational dialogue. However to reach this agreement there are some conditions in Habermas's theory of communicative actions. In addition the communicative action needs a space that call public sphere in which heated discussion take place. Communicative action theory regards language as a core constituent of the society and serves as an effort made to validate and update Marxism by seeking inspiration from Systems Theory by Luhmann, social theory by Durkheim, Weber and Mead and developmental psychology by Kohlberg.

The potential of digital media 2.0 tends to generate numerous reactions and responses. An important addition to the theory of public spheres made by digital public spheres is the concept of having multiple publics, instead of having single overarching public sphere (Dahlgren, 2001b; Asen & Brouwer, 2001). This is possible, as there is huge number of people using the Internet for sharing their point of views and having discourse over different topics, allowing people form different backgrounds and conflicting interests to have public discourse. Due to this ability of the Internet, a lot has been said about the possibilities of how Internet can create and enhance online public spheres, where people tend to have logical and rational discussions resulting is constructive communicative actions. These social networks and other communities create a territory in which citizens tend to interact and exchange their opinion freely as public structure, where they get ...