The Public Sphere Between the State and the Market

Abstract

The set of criticisms leveled at the public sphere and its relation with rational discussion are also of a certain interest for those who, in the media age, question the information and communication society, sometimes identified as a “new public sphere”. The public sphere is a concept that Habermas situates at the point of development of philosophy and history in order to account for the modern emergence of a singular political place, different from the agora and the ancient forum . Habermas' public sphere is based on social communication, but it has a distinct relationship with rational discussion, in which the examination of opinions involves the use of argumentation. Finally, the emergence of audiovisual media, replacing the written word, constituted a rupture, even in the reproduction of the culture, because of the competition between the media system and the pedagogical system.