PUBLIC SPHERES

Public Spheres

Introduction1

Discussion1

Public Sphere1

Public Sphere Revised2

Public Sphere in Europe and Asia3

Case study Comparison of Question Time and Jeremy Kyle Show6

Leveson Inquiry6

Modernist Argument7

Transforming the Public Spheres7

Conclusion8

References9

Public Spheres

Introduction

This essay is focused on explaining the concept of public sphere, how it evolved and its historical and contemporary concept. In order to do so, the public sphere has been explained followed by the criticism that the Habermasian concept of public sphere has received. It also explains the public spheres in Europe and Asia.

Discussion

Public Sphere

Public Sphere refers to the realm of the social life in which something that approaches the public opinion can be formed. The access for the opinion is granted to every citizen. A part of the public sphere exists in every conversation in which assembling of private individuals for forming a public body takes place (Habermas, 1989, p. 49).

The modern social life contains four domains which have been divided on the basis of two dimensions; private versus public and socially integrated versus system integrated. The material reproduction is considered to be the function of modern administrative state and capitalist economy both of them are system integrated but the state is part of public domain and the economy is part of private. The symbolic reproduction that involves cultural transmission, solidarity formation and socialization is the function of two institutions of the modern world that are socially integrated; the public sphere and the private family. Historically, the two private domains have been linked with the role of consumer and worker and the public domain is linked with the role of client and citizen.

The mass media which is mainly linked with the symbolic reproduction addresses both public sphere and family and also have complex relations with the state and economy. The public sphere is a space where the private individuals discuss the public matters and a place that mediates between the state and the society. The public sphere has the potential to influence the power by forming critical consensus that results in producing a public opinion and by making the state accountable towards its citizens. It is also considered to bet the factory of politics and the space where the politics is made communicable and possible.

There has been a concern regarding the way public service ethos are destroyed and then replaced by the market model. The information and communication technology has also expanded and diversified. It was argued that during the 17th and 18th century, there emerged a forum where the authority of state was criticized and also called upon for justifying before the reasoning and informed public. This type of forum was developed in the basis of the principle of publicness and that the opinions of the private individuals can turn into public opinion by a rational debate of citizens that was free from any type of domination and open to all (Livingstone & Lunt, 2001, p. 16).

Public Sphere Revised

The Habermasian concept regarding public sphere has received a lot of critique. The two most controversial points in these critiques are the consensus ...