The public sphere is a key concept in a contemporary social science. It is a forum where society members are engaged in critical public debate. Habermas researched on the surface of public sphere in the 18th century. He has researched in detail to understand the concept of public sphere. Firstly, he had done researched on the handwritten newspapers which were published to forecast weather. Slowly articles were also started to published which discussed on public sphere. Secondly, he does his research on how the coffee house act as a public sphere, what kind of people are involved in a coffee house and the topic they discuss on. Thirdly he did his research in saloon and lastly, he concluded that people are gathered on such places for rational discourse.
Public sphere is a forum where society member from different cultural and political orientation come together and freely express their opposing views and opinions, discuss and identify social problem and context and debate ideas independently. Public sphere plays a significant role in social life. Earlier people would drink tea and coffee in a private sphere however when people become addicted to tea/coffee they started drink in a public sphere such as coffee house. One of the radical feminist Simone de Beauvoir also begins her debate from the coffee house. Public sphere makes democracy more efficient and stimulates political action. Some of the example of public sphere are universities, working stations, church, temples, garden etc. where different logical rational ideas and discourses are exchanged. In essence, Habermas showed how the public sphere of the eighteenth century was a critical juncture where democracy as we understand it today first emerged. According to the various changes in the world the empirical concept of public sphere evolves to cope with the dynamic change in the society.
In discussion forum of public sphere, the concept of social condition must be there. The different viewpoint of people whether it may verbal or written should be discussed and people may critically analyzed discuss concept. To clearly understand the social condition and its problem let us take an example of a newspaper article. It is not necessary every person read the published article but it may be the concern for some stakeholders. If any article is about political issues than it may be read, understand and criticized by general public and discussion about it has been made on public sphere. If anyone has been criticized for his/her identity and personality rather than their knowledge or concept no matter how correct they are than it is considered as problem of social condition of public sphere.
In past the concept of public sphere evolved from coffee culture to cope with dynamic changes in the society which can also be understood as traditional public sphere. Because of the tremendous growth in science and technology the entire world is digitized and people from throughout the world are closely tied under the wave of internet and there has been a transformation from traditional to digital sphere. Like traditional forum coffee houses, at present days the social medias like Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp, blog, etc. are used as discussion forum. The traditional forum and its discussion issues can be controlled but the discussion on the digital public sphere cannot be completely controlled by any parties. The digital transformation has a powerful influence on the procedure and content of political campaigns, attitudes of voters and on subjects which come to public debate. The digital public sphere has become a public forum where people write status on Facebook wall. They received lots of comments and this comment are public’s opinion either for against the argument. This way it creates a discussion forum where people seek to create group identity showing their solidarity. Preciously the discussions are enclosed with within certain group of people only. There is no such hearing from government level of their viewpoint but digital public sphere holds majority of opinions which creates pressure to government to hear the discussion. We can take example of Dr. Govinda K.C who has been supported through digital forum and medias which has created pressure to government for hearing his viewpoint. The use of digital technology made digital forum more powerful than traditional forum as in the past. People in the 21st century can progressively access the news online instead of reading newspaper and magazine. This is possible because online news is easily accessible with image and videos and saves time and money. People do not have to go to coffee shop for discussion and this is the reason people where people have started their own portal of discussion. Before the digital media comes into existence the gate keeper would filter everything and released on media. In other word gatekeeper is a lend process in which and an editor acts as gatekeeper and every article of a journalist go through manager, designer for the approval. It controls the quality and decide what the truth is. However, with the development of digital media there has been an emergence of gate watching. Citizens journalists are gate watchers who collects information from different sources and publish the truth. There has been no restriction in fact people have freedom to share their ideas and write their concept. Blogs are one of the best examples of writing of ones view without restriction. Beside of having democracy to present their view on public medias, one cannot post any offensive comments. If anyone is found to be posted any offensive comments then he or she will be sentenced to a prison. For example, if any one open discussion about drugs on Facebook or twitter then police may interrupt and send them to prison but sending to prison is not a solution rather than awareness program about such discussion need to provide to people so that they can have only rational discussion not irritational discussion on public sphere. This is one of the drawbacks of digital forum that public may be punished for their irrational discussion in mass which is not in traditional forum. In traditional forum discussion is limited to certain group of people only.
In essence, Public sphere is a forum where people come together to freely discuss and identify social problems and that discussion influence political action. Through eighteen century till now there has been lots of change in public sphere culture. For its technology and media plays an important role. Due to which digitalization of public sphere were possible and it is much more powerful source to express one’s opinion in modern world.
Works Cited
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