Structural transformations of the public sphere

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Abstract
We are living in times in which spatial frameworks of communication are in a state of upheaval. The old hegemony of state‐structured and territorially‐bound public life mediated by radio, television, newspapers and books is being rapidly eroded. In its place are developing a multiplicity of networked spaces of communication which are not tied immediately to territory, and which irreversibly fragment anything resembling a single, spatially‐integrated public sphere within a nation‐state framewrok. The conventional ideal of a unified public sphere and its corresponding vision of a republic of citizens striving to live up to some “public good”; are obsolete. Public life is today subject to “medievalization”;, not as Habermas defined it in Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, but in the different sense of a developing and complex mosaic of differently sized, overlapping and interconnected public spheres. This restructuring of communicative space forces us to revise our understanding of public life and its “partner”; terms, such as public opinion, the public good and the private/public distinction.

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