The Public Sphere

The 'public sphere', according to Jürgen Habermas is "made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state".

My first mental image of this is a slightly re-imagined scene from Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451: mindless carbon-copy drones sitting in front of the television wall, taking surveys about their favourite news stories that played that night. (I have no idea where that came from.) I designed a poll to show my mental example; news stories taken from the NY Times, BBC News and MSN.

Which news story affected you the most tonight?
	AIG repays bonus money?
	world's cheapest car comes onto the market?
	the death of Sylvia Plath's son?
	that blacks and Latinos are losing their jobs faster?
pollcode.com free polls

The original conception of this public sphere was that it was constrained by the three following elements and was strictly 'bourgeois'. (from the second reading)
1. The sphere is formed by public discussion, often mediated.
2. It represents a new space of discussion for many who had been previously excluded.
3. Ideas presents were considered based on their merits, and not on the social standing of the speaker.

The 'public sphere' nowadays is moving online, with the close of so many printed news and the advent of technology making face-to-face conversation in coffee houses outdated. However, the latter two elements still survive in the Age of the Internet: ideas are taken as words on a screen with little thought as to the person sitting behind the monitor (as in a forum board) and if you have access to the Web, it's fairly easy to make your ideas known to the masses. I think the Internet and technology in general will continue to change the 'public sphere' subtly, but it's basic elements will retain what it once stood for.