The Digital Public Sphere

A shift in our new media age is obvious.  What isn’t necessarily clear is how that transition occurred.  People used to cherish their black and white newspaper like a new puppy on Christmas, yet Americans today spend as little as half an hour a day reading that same newspaper.  Many communications experts, including Rettberg, attempt to explain this phenomenon as it continually impacts our society today.

Rettberg writes in chapter 2, “We have moved from a culture dominated by mass media, using one-to-many communications, to one where participatory media, using many-to-many communication, is becoming the norm.”  Our culture believes strongly in democracy as it applies to our everyday lives in that people are permitted, and often encouraged, to participate in a social conversation with others.  Walter illustrates this as a human’s second orality.  Blogs enable a constant flow of information among strangers with similar interests.  Since blogs encourage an informal tone and language akin to everyday speech.  This second orality is one that Internet users use on a daily basis, as we stretch ideas into the digital public sphere.  Does this second orality correlate with the skill set Ulmer refers to his in article on Electracy?

The Modern Public Sphere was an idea originated by Jurgen Habermas in his work The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.  Rettberg summarizes Habermas’ Modern Public Sphere as an “ideal democratic space for rational debate among informed and engaged citizens, a space that would thus be an arena mediating between state and society.”  Last semester, I took Political Communications with Dr. Letteri and read Habermas’ work in its entirety.  Drawing on my knowledge from that course, I further understand that the best way to democracy is through critical rational debate.  Habermas explains the evolution of the public sphere from coffee houses and taverns to the bourgeois society parties.  This public sphere eventually becomes public opinion, which continues to be held in high regard today.  Digital media allow for a quicker response and a more diverse audience of bloggers and readers.  How is the modern public sphere altered by the digital world?

Rettberg’s third chapter hits on the speed of blog posting and commenting as one of its most beneficial keys to success.  The pace of which information is shared is rapid and allows for ideas to develop quickly.  However, the speed of transmitting the information does not have to be instantaneous.  For example, a friend may comment on your social media Facebook site a mere three minutes after you post an interesting article from the New York Times.  However, three weeks later another friend may find that you posted the article and have an opposing opinion.  The beauty of the Internet is not only its rapidity, but also its continuity.  Stories continue to be posted for other readers who may find interest in the article at a later date.  The visibility of social networks, such as in this example, matter to the audience.  Visibility is what gives Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, blogs, and MySpace its fame.  They are seen by readers and can be referred back to the same page in the future.