Towards an Inclusive Digital Public Sphere

An interesting question worthy of address by political communication research is whether we are witnessing the reappearance of the ‘romantic’ features of the early Habermasian (1962/1989) idea of the ‘public sphere’ in today’s global media ecosystem. In the theorist’s imagination, it was late 18th century Europe’s coffee shop environment that provided a locale where the public (mostly bourgeois) met informally to discuss issues of public interest, wherefrom eventually emerged public opinion. In the cafés, and other casual meeting places, later to become — when not disbanded by despotic regimes of the time — crowded squares and town halls, public opinion grew to become a critical force, both cultural (capable of questioning the foundations of the existing power systems) and political (able to challenge the power of the dominant classes).