Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

“Ideology and simultaneously more than mere ideology”: On Habermas’ reflections and hypotheses on a further structural transformation of the political public sphere

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Democratic responsibility in the digital public sphere

This paper examines how social media is providing a new digital public sphere and shaping the democratic process in Ghana. It draws on Habermas's public sphere theory to explore how social media has occupied a digital public sphere that creates spaces for democratic participation and public discourse. The paper reviews relevant literature on social media use as a tool of political communication, the new digital public sphere, and the democratic process in Ghana and globally. Since Ghana's return to democratic rule in 1992, the media landscape was initially dominated by traditional state and private media outlets. However, the rise of digital and social media over the past two decades has transformed the public sphere, creating online spaces for citizens to engage in political deliberations and share diverse viewpoints. The paper examines how social media played a crucial role in Ghana's 2020 elections, facilitating citizen political participation, public opinion formation, and activism despite COVID-19 restrictions on physical gatherings. Social media enabled political parties to campaign online, citizens to voice concerns, and interest groups to mobilize protests and demand accountability. While acknowledging the digital divide and attempts by political elites to control narratives, the paper argues that social media's interactive and connective structure has enhanced the public sphere by dismantling dominant discourses and amplifying alternative perspectives. The paper concludes by recommending robust fact-checking mechanisms and collaborative efforts from government, civil society, media, and interest groups to strengthen the digital public sphere's role in consolidating Ghana's democracy. Overall, it highlights social media's transformative impact on Ghana's public sphere and democratic processes.

Egyptian Women Controversial Issues and the Digital Public Sphere:Can Social Media Debates Be Used as Indicators of Social Struggle in Society? Enas Abou Youssef (bio) 1. Introduction Can social media networks be used as indicators of social class conflict in society? This is the core research question of this study. Social media networks have opened a new digital public sphere era. In Egypt, ever since the uprising on January 25, 2011, social media networks are considered one of the focal communicative tools that encouraged civic participation from many socio-ideological classes to the extent that the uprising was called the "Facebook revolution."1 Since 2011, the country has witnessed many waves of polarization. At the beginning, polarization was political where Islamists were facing secular trends. That polarization shed its light in other [End Page 58] aspects of social and economic life in Egypt later on. Many cultural and socioeconomic issues were displayed on social media and reflected diverse attitudes, approaches, and even values specifically regarding women's issues. In Egypt, among other Arab countries, the assumption that digital public sphere has higher freedom ceiling with socio-cultural issues is true to a substantial extent. Based on this assumption, one can examine socio-cultural struggles in Egyptian society from social issues debated and displayed on social media. Facebook, twitter, Tik-Tok, and reels can be considered reflections of different social classes that have access and are digitally empowered to dominate in the digital public sphere.2 According to Pierre Bourdieu, social status can be analyzed by considering three exchangeable capitals: economic, social, and cultural. In general, economic capital consists of money, assets, and property the individual holds. Social capital includes actual or virtual groups to which the individual belongs, their durable networks, and more or less institutionalized relationships.3 Cultural capital refers to the type of education and socialization that allows individuals to demonstrate their knowledge and cultural consumption and that differentiates them from other social groups.4 This article aims to present an analysis of Egyptian women's controversial issues that are displayed on the social media "Facebook" from one side and their indications to types of socio-cultural conflict existing in society from the other side during June 2021-July 2022. The key question is: What are the recent social conflict characteristics concluded from debates addressing Egyptian women's controversial issues displayed and trended on social networks? [End Page 59] 2. Reviewing the Literature and Theoretical Conceptual Framework 2.1 Digital Public Sphere One of the major points Jürgen Habermas highlighted when presenting the concept of "Public Sphere" is that sphere is "open to all." A public sphere refers to a society that can become engaged in "critical public debate."5 Accordingly, the public sphere would be linked to media for information, communication, and access by all citizens. Media plays the role of promoting the open market of ideas in liberal societies. Habermas thereby stresses that the public sphere is not just a sphere of public political communication, but also one that enables social relations using media.6 However, some scholars have argued that the idea of a public sphere, which is free from state censorship and private ownership, does not exist. Niklas Luhmann, for example, assured that all social systems, including communication systems, are related to the power of money and the paid/unpaid in the economy or the power of who is in office/out of office in politics.7 It should be noted that media systems never function in a vacuum. They are part of the political, socioeconomic system in society. Yet, recent technological factors have loosened the public sphere and opened access to more societal participants. Social media networks created new public sphere horizons of political communication. In 2011, there were revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and beyond. The common aspects of these protests were the use of social media networks as tactics of political, economic, and social protests, creating a new public space that reflected a common crisis of society.8 The digital public sphere is a communicative sphere that is provided or supported by online or social media – from websites to social network sites, weblogs, and micro-blogs. These platforms provide...

Being a master of metaphors

Gripsrud, J. and H. Moe, eds. 2010. The digital public sphere: challenges for media policy. Goteborg: Nordicom, 167 pp (ISBN 978-91-86523-02-2) The concepts of 'the public', 'public sphere', 'civil society' and media regulation have dominated media studies for some time. Scholars have attempted to explore the nexus between regulation and the audience/public's access to the media/public sphere (Curran 2000; Eribo & Jong-Ebot 1997; McChesney 1999; Venturelli 1998). In most of these writings, regulation is seen as hindering access to the public domain and as stifling freedom of expression. However, these scholars are concerned with traditional media, (1) while the authors in The digital public sphere: challenges for media policy extend the critique to the digital public sphere. They examine the problems of regulation in a digitised environment and conclude that political and commercial interests take precedence in the crafting of media policy, mainly because end users of such digitised media are not perceived as a public (2) but as audiences or consumers. The issues discussed in this collection are relevant across the world, even though the digital public sphere in most Third-World countries is not as developed as it is in Europe, largely because of political, economic and technological challenges. In Chapter 1, Slavko Splichal grapples with the concepts 'public', 'public sphere' and 'civil society'. The author looks at the movement from the angle of one homogenous public sphere to many public spheres. He argues that the public may be 'dispersed physically but mentally/spiritually tied together' (p. 32). The public is distinguished from the crowd in that its members act rationally. The public is distinguished from public opinion, which safeguards against the 'misrule of those in power [and] is also a means of coercion in the hands of the majority against any minority of those who would not share the majority opinion' (p. 26). He adds that the public is only a social category, while the public sphere is the infrastructure which enables public opinion to flourish. Therefore the public's infrastructure is the public sphere. On the other hand, civil society is said to generate the public sphere and to enable citizens to wield power over those in power through 'public discussion and persuasion' (p. 30). He also rightly notes that through this persuasion and discussion 'civil society influences regulative forces of the state and corporate institutions' (p. 31). He aptly sums up the problem by stating: 'There is no public sphere without civil society, but there is also none without the public' (ibid.), then points out that the Internet popularised the concept of the public sphere and helped launch the notion of an international/global public sphere. However, this is debatable as stories broadcast via satellite, radio and digital technology before the advent of the Internet, were able to cut across geographical boundaries and spark debate worldwide. As Thussu (2006: xvii) argues: 'Although the Internet has received greater attention in recent public debates on international communication, television, being much more widely accessible, is perhaps more influential in setting the global communication agenda.' For example, The Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon. Besides the above, Splichal (2010) corrects the misconception that all mass media are public spheres, by pointing out that some are not and that there are other actors (such as the state, political parties, interest groups, media gatekeepers and businesses) who are already in the public sphere to influence it. Finally, Splichal points out that the 'citizens qua citizen--either as publics or as audiences--are not among key actors in the public sphere anymore but rather, as in the old Lippman's theorization, spectators observing the public stage from the balcony'. In Chapter 2 Hannu Nieminem looks at global copyright law by taking a case study of the Finnish TVkaista. …

This article reflects on the discursive representation, legal, and practical challenges of locating, classifying, and publishing citizens’ views of the EU in digital media discourse. We start with the discursive representation challenge of locating and identifying citizens’ voices in social and news media discourse. The second set of challenges pertains to the legal, regulatory framework guiding research ethics on personal data but also cuts across the academic debate on what constitutes “public” discourse in the digital public sphere. The third set of challenges are practical but of no less consequence. Here we bring in the issue of marketisation of the public sphere and of the digital commons, and how these processes affect the ethics but also the feasibility and reliability of digital public sphere analysis. Thereby we illustrate that barriers to content analysis can make data collection practically challenging, feeding dilemmas with data reliability and research ethics. These methodological and empirical challenges are illustrated and unpacked with examples from the Benchmark project, which analysed the extent to which citizens drive EU contestation on social and digital news media. Our study focuses on UK public discourse on a possible European Economic Area solution, and the reactions such discourse may have triggered in two EU-associated countries, Norway and Switzerland, in the post-Brexit referendum period 2016–2019. We thus take a broad European perspective of EU contestation that is not strictly confined within the EU public sphere(s). The case study illustrates the research process and the emerging empirical challenges and concludes with reflections and practical suggestions for future research projects.

With the rapid development of the Internet and social media, the digital public sphere is becoming an important space that influences public opinion and consumer behavior. This article takes the "Sams Club product selection controversy event" that sparked widespread discussion in China in 2025 as a case study to explore how social media shapes consumers' perception and trust in brands as a public sphere. Based on the theories of public sphere and brand trust, this study uses questionnaire surveys and text analysis methods to analyze how social media promotes extensive discussions among consumers about this event. The research finds that social media uses hot lists and tag functions to strengthen agenda-setting attributes, expand the spread of the event, and influence the image of the brand constructed in the public's mind. This article points out that the digital public sphere is not limited to political issues, and its influence is increasingly extending to the consumption field. The significance of this study lies in revealing the mechanism of social media's role in consumption disputes and providing references for brands on how to respond to crises, rebuild trust, and shape identity in the digital public sphere.

This chapter builds on Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. It relates Habermas’ concept to Marx’ notion of alienation. A fusion of these two concepts is used for showing that digital capitalism and capitalist social media do not form a public sphere but rather constitute a danger to democracy. In contrast, a public service Internet is a manifestation of the digital public sphere and digital democracy. Internet platforms such as Facebook, which dominate the social media sector, are among the largest corporations in the world. Further, social media have become an integral part of politics and public communication. Right-wing politicians use Internet platforms for spreading propaganda and false news. The Arab Spring and the Occupy movements have shown that social media are important in social movements. No politician, party, NGO, or social movement can do without profiles on social media today. This raises the question of the connection between social media and the public. This article sheds light on this question. Section 2 presents a concept of the public sphere as a concept of critique. Section 3 uses the concept of the public sphere to criticize capitalist Internet platforms. Section 4 deals with the potentials of a public service Internet.

Background. Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, major transformations in the media consumption of Ukrainians have occurred. Social media platforms are utilized as means of informational warfare and play a major role in the cultural production of everyday content on both local and nationwide levels. The logic of content production on social media platforms fosters the constitution of the so-called 'digital public sphere', and in this way affects the Ukrainian public sphere overall. The goal of this article is to explicate the potential uses of social media platforms as sources of research, that allow to observe the cultural production on the occupied territories, and in this way foster the creation of policies for the re-integration. The research objectives are to identify established social media informational infrastructures in the occupied town of Berdiansk and explore the utilized principles of cultural production of the image of the city, through the concept of the digital public sphere. Methods. Case studies, content analysis, netnographic study, narrative, and textual cultural analysis, interdisciplinary analysis of metadata and statistic data available online, and cultural history approach – reconstruction of the logic of material devices, and functioning of virtual spaces overall. Results. Two simultaneous and mutually exclusive informational infrastructures are established, Ukrainian and Russian. Both are creating mutually exclusive but intersecting images of the city, framing ongoing events as either occupation or 'liberation'. The images of the city are constituted via the cultural production of everyday content on social media platforms. This cultural production follows the logic of attention economy. Conclusions. Russian informational military units and occupational administrations actively utilize social media platforms as an instrument of informational warfare, to reinforce and legitimize their presence. However, at the same time, social media affordances foster the emergence of new practices of resistance from the Ukrainian side. The openness of the network environment allows Ukrainian citizens under occupation to stay in touch with the Ukrainian media sphere, and vice versa. The digital public sphere allows us to research the transformations occurring under occupation. New forms of social and cultural production emerge within a network environment of social media platforms, particularly within a situation of a full-scale war.

The debate over the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in late 2018 showcases the crucial role of digital and, in particular, social media as vehicles of disinformation that populist actors can exploit in an effort to create resentment and fear in the public sphere. While mainstream political actors and legacy media initially did not address the issue, right-wing populist actors claimed ownership by framing (presumably <em>obligatory</em>) mass immigration as a matter of social, cultural, economic, and not least political risk, and created an image of political and cultural elites conspiring to keep the issue out of the public sphere. Initially advanced via digital and social media, such frames resonated sufficiently strongly in civil society to politicize the GCM in various national public spheres. In this article, these dynamics are explored by comparing the politicization of the GCM in three EU member states, namely Germany, Austria, and Sweden. Using a process-tracing design, the article (a) identifies the key actors in the process, (b) analyzes how the issue emerged in social and other digital media and travelled from digital media into mainstream mass media discourse, and finally (c) draws comparative conclusions from the three analyzed cases. Particular emphasis is placed on the frames used by right-wing populist actors, how these frames resonated in the wider public sphere and thereby generated communicative power against the GCM, ultimately forcing the issue onto the agenda of national public spheres and political institutions.

This chapter discusses how media use changes when everyday life undergoes change, focusing on major life transitions. I briefly introduce different perspectives on evolving media repertoires across the life course, and argue for the relevance of studying periods of destabilization and reorientation, when elements of media repertoires and modes of public connection are temporarily or more permanently transformed. I argue that easily adaptable media technologies such as smartphones tend to become more important in unsettled circumstances, as easy-to-reach for tools for new forms of self-expression, information-seeking or social contact, in accordance with shifting social roles and everyday circumstances. The primary empirical material analyzed in the chapter is a small qualitative interview study with mothers, about their media use the first year with a new-born.

This research reveals how social media advances gender responsiveness in the context of China’s digital transformation by exploring ride-hailing services, a fast-growing though often under-regulated sector. Specifically, the rise of ride-hailing has been accompanied by incidents of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, leading to social media outrage. Building on Habermas’s concept of the public sphere, this study – perhaps the first to explore the gender dynamics of ride-hailing policymaking in China – centers on the notion of digital public sphere. This study investigates how citizens, corporations, and government agencies have markedly differed in their discourses on gender and safety. Results exhibit that as corporations and government agencies seek technological and legislative solutions to improve safety, Chinese citizen-based activism efforts have amplified gendered perspectives, addressing gender-responsive policymaking. These actors generate discourses that echo various strands of feminism and further cultivate the policy trajectory, including pressuring government agencies to enforce the social accountability of private corporations. This research addresses a pragmatic perspective to demonstrate how liberal, socialist, and cultural feminisms coexist and negotiate in China’s digital public sphere. It aims to enhance one’s understanding of online civic engagement and resulting policy change in contemporary China, enriching the public sphere theory with emerging technology under a contentious political context.

Drawing from Jürgen Habermas’ critique of the public sphere, this chapter reflects on the means by which neoliberal capitalism, enabled by the state, works to censor citizens by facilitating their exclusion from the digital public sphere on social media. I argue that the prohibitive cost of and lack of access to Internet and broadband services in Ghana represent a crucial structural impediment to participation in the digital public sphere. I also examine the neoliberal capitalist justifications that create and perpetuate an unjust regime, which inevitably recreates a bourgeois public sphere regarding social media use. I conclude my chapter with a reflection that the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the concern about the digital divide and has heightened the need to reexamine how significant portions of the population are systemically shut out of the digital public sphere.