THE POSITION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE INTERNET ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Contemporary media theories increasingly encounter intense changes in social relations that are the result of changes in communication techniques and means. McLuhan called this dynamic a media-centric driver of social change. Media theories and communication disciplines are becoming more current because they have a historical opportunity to follow (post)modern society, which is in a state of constant change mediated by digital technologies. The aim of this paper is to examine whether communication and organizing people through social networks can lead to the transformation of the public sphere as defined by Habermas and related authors. We will build on Habermas’ categorization of historical transformations of the public sphere in order to understand the context and epoch of the current transformation. The second hypothetical question of the paper is whether the Internet could replace some social institutions and question the authorities and conventions achieved, especially if we pay attention to the criticism of democracy by authors like Colin Crouch (2018: 9) who questions the legitimacy of current democratic elections concluding that “people are not offered essential possibility to participate in political processes”. Finally, the question remains whether the Internet as a mass medium has a systemictechnocratic character of maintaining the status quo or whether it can serve as a driver of change or a means of direct democracy for users. We believe that this kind of work will be a nice link or a quality overview of theories and anticipations concerning the issue of political and electoral motivation - the topic with which Columbia University’s major research on media effects began.