What is it about?
This article is about the present melt-down in the public sphere, where a range of forces - such as technological change, geo-political competition, challenges to rationality, transformations in how media businesses work – are combining to create a 'post-public sphere' in capitalist democracies. We're in a transitional moment and don't know where it's headed.
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Why is it important?
This article focuses on uncertainty and tries to diagnose what's in play when we're talking about the public sphere today. If we think reasoned public debate is important for democracy - although hard to achieve in practice - we need to understand why and how it is now under challenge.
Perspectives
I've pointed to the growing importance of how the internet is regulated in this piece. It's not that regulation will provide a solution to the problem of the post-public sphere. But, depending on what's done, it might go some way towards this. It's also a sign of panic in the system that derives from a wide range of concerns that cut across political, economic, cultural and moral dimensions of social life.
Professor Philip R. Schlesinger
University of Glasgow
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: After the post-public sphere, Media Culture & Society, August 2020, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0163443720948003.
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