Jürgen Habermas: “The public sphere” (1962)

“…a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens.”

Ø Key terms from Habermas

s Political public sphere

Private persons coming together to reason in public.

s Representative publicity

Displaying power before the people.

s Rational-critical debate

The force of the better argument.

s Refeudalization

Merging of public and private

New economic conditions lead to a return to elements of feudal publicity:

- Decline of rational-critical debate

- Manipulation and staged display

Ø Habermas uses the political ideals of the Enlightenment to critique the present:

He saw decay in contemporary society and politics, and argued that there’s been an increasing shift from:

s critical publicity to manipulative publicity;

s active citizens to passive consumers;

s the press playing a primarily political role to a primarily economic one – “the transformation from a journalism of conviction to one of commerce”; and

s the separation of public and private to the blurring of this boundary.