Global Public Sphere or Fragmentary, Ever-Diminishing Publics?

Abstract

This article peruses the discourse concerning the European public sphere initiated by Habermas in the early 1960s and assessments of the arguments by a variety of commentators who have drawn attention to the globalisation of the public and its multiplicity. In this context I suggest that the notion of the public must be understood in relation to the concept of 'viral modernity' including viral and open media on the one hand, and technologies of post-truth on the other which systematically distort the messaging of the 'public' marring its future possibilities.