A Triumph of Rhetoric over Practice? The ‘Online Public Sphere’ and Political Discourse in Ireland's General Election 2011

Abstract

A loud, optimistic fanfare has accompanied the greater circulation of information and opinion in the political sphere via 'new media', proclaiming the potential of such media, and online communications tools generally, to reactivate Habermas's public sphere1 in a new incarnation. The inherent promise of this is increased accountability from politicians and a consequent move towards greater democratisation. In Ireland, despite a proliferation of bespoke sites of online discourse, it is argued that much of this activity is not yet yielding new or encouraging patterns of involvement in the democratic process. Online interventions leading up to the general election of 2011 highlighted the nascent characteristics of new media interactions and undermined the conten tion that 'the new democratisation' might in turn have the power to alter an ingrained and lamentable political culture. Based on an examination of empirical data generated from interviews and a discourse analysis of election-themed websites, it is the contention of this paper This article is based on a presentation to the annual conference of the Committee for International Affairs, entitled 'Democratisation and the New Media, which took place at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 25 November 2011. 'See Jurgen Habermas, The structural transformation of the public sphere: an enquiry into a category of bourgeois society (Cambridge, Mass., 1991). Here the normative concept of 'public sphere' is set out as a space of deliberation that allows for the participation of the citizen and the discussion of topics based on their validity and merit rather than on the perceived status of the speaker. It thus facilitates the participation of previously excluded discussants. A core aspect of this sphere is what Habermas termed 'rational-critical debate'. The public sphere is at once separate from the apparatus of government and crucial to its functioning in a fully democratic manner. According to the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy: 'Jurgen Habermas currently ranks as one of the most influential philosophers in the world. Bridging continental and Anglo American traditions of thought... [h]is extensive written work addresses topics stretching from social-political theory to aesthetics, epistemology and language to philosophy of religion, and his ideas have significantly influenced not only philosophy but also political-legal thought, sociology, communication studies, argumentation theory and rhetoric... Moreover, he has figured prominently in Germany as a public intellectual [...]', available at http://plato.stanford.edu/ entries/habermas (19 September 2012). Author's e-mail: candonp@tcd.ie Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 23 (2012), 59-74. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.2012.23.59 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.167 on Thu, 21 Jul 2016 04:26:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 60 Irish Studies in International Affairs that the deeper structures of the political milieu—particularly those concerning access, equity and accountability—have remained largely unaffected. In addition, it is evident that the online spaces are rapidly being 'colonised' by corporate actors. The websites under scrutiny were launched with great expectations that they would change political discourse, but so far these expectations remain largely unmet.