THE PUBLIC SPHERE 6
Running Head: THE STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE 1
THE STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE 6
THE STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE
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The public sphere is referred to as an area that is crucial in social life where individuals can come together to discuss freely and identify problems that affect and challenge the society. Through holding such discussions, it is possible to influence political actions. It is primarily a discursive space whereby individuals and groups congregate or rather come together in order to reach on a common ground or judgment by discussing on matters of mutual interest (Habermas, 1989).
The public sphere can be depicted as a theater in the modern societies whereby political participation is enacted through the medium of talking or via having a conversation among the involved parties. The public sphere is also depicted to as a realm of the social life where by public opinions are developed.
The public sphere was as a place where citizens will freely exchange their ideas, attitudes, information, and opinions towards certain factors surrounding them such as the political and economical state surrounding them (Habermas, 1989). The concept of the public sphere originally came into existence in the 18th century. It was by a German sociologist, Jürgen Habermas who credited the ideology of the public sphere by popularizing the term in his book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.
The book begins by trying to demarcate what Habermas calls the bourgeois public sphere. Habermas defines the public sphere to as the sphere from which private people or individuals get to join collectively or rather together in order to form what he refers to as a “public.” Through philosophy, he is able to trace the history of the division between the private and public in reference to language.
Before the bourgeois public sphere to the existence as a representative of publicity that existed since the Middle Ages up to the18th century. The previous method involved the Lord or King representing himself before the audience or rather the public; the King was the only public figure or person, and all other persons were simply subjects or rather spectators who had no say in all matters. During that time, the private and public realms were not separated.
There were some crucial elements and factors in the evolution of the public sphere such as the economic developments. Habermas laid lots of emphasis on the roles and duties of the capitalist modes of production. He developed an interest in empowering the economy and thus encouraged the long-distance trade in and commodities news in this evolution.
One of the crucial features of the public sphere was that it existed during the 18th century was that the public used the element of reasoning in rational-critical debate. This led to domination by the state, and even to the illegitimate use of power by the State. Rational-critical debate took place within the bourgeois reading public, in response to literature
. According to Habermas point of view, the public sphere is quite crucial in developing the private institution of a family. Habermas lays strong emphasis on the role of the public sphere as a way forward for enhancing civilization in the society thus articulating to its interests.
The complete development of the first fully political public sphere was held in Britain during the 18th century. During the 19th century, the public sphere was institutionalized and incorporated within the European bourgeois constitutional states making public consensus be a way of checking domination within the states. This made the public sphere be dependent on socialization.
The bourgeois public sphere begun to lose its popularity and eroded off due to the structural and economic changes. There are boundaries that exist between the society and state this leads to what Habermas referred to as the feudalization of the society. The state and society begun to coexist in each other’s spheres; making the private sphere to collapsed into itself.
The key feature of the public sphere (rational-critical debate) came to be replaced by leisure. This also affected the private people making them not to exist as public of property owners.
According to Habermas, the world of mass media is quite powerful and cheap. He claims mass media influences and tends to manipulate in creating a public sphere where none exists and also tends to manufacture consensus (Calhoun, 1992). This is ideology tends to apply and is evident in the modern society’s politics, with the current rise of new disciplines like public relations and advertising. The old institutions of the public sphere are currently been constantly replaced by the large non-governmental organizations.
According to Habermas, the public opinion is greatly influenced and manipulated by the media rather than the result of a rational debate by the public. The media have made the public sphere become a platform for advertising mere press issues that are politically based. Basically, in todays society, the media has the power to transforming the public opinion. Habermas proposes a theory that is aimed in restoring the function of the public sphere.
It is the theory of democracy where by the majority (public) participate in the decision making process. The decisions made must be a rationally motivated. Thus, a political public sphere would be characterized by at least two crosscutting processes: communicative generation of legitimate power and a deployment of media power to procure mass loyalty, consumer demand and compliance with systematic imperatives (Calhoun, 1992).
References
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Calhoun, C. J. (1992). Habermas and the public sphere. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
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