Digital Public Sphere
Description
Christian Fuchs:
“Political communication is an important and indispensable aspect of the political system in all models of democracy. In general terms, it can be said that the public is a central mechanism of the political system. By ‘public’ we generally understand goods and spaces that are ‘open to all’ (Habermas, 1989: 1). One speaks, for example, of public education, public buildings, public parks, public squares, public assemblies, public demonstrations, public opinion, public media, etc. Public goods and facilities are not reserved for a clique or a club of the privileged, but are intended for the general public, i.e. all members of society.
The public sphere is a sphere of public political communication that mediates between the other subsystems of society, namely the economy, politics, culture, and private life. The ideal type of the public sphere is a realm of society that organises ‘critical publicity’ (Habermas, 1989: 237) and ‘critical public debate’ (Habermas, 1989: 52). The public sphere mediatises political communication. It is a mediatising space of political communication in which citizens meet, who inform themselves about life in society, and communicate politically. The public sphere is a space where political opinions are formed. Public communication is an important aspect of the existence of humans as social beings and of society. In modern society, the media system is the most important organised form of public communication. In the media system, media actors produce public information. There is a number of criticisms of Habermas’ concept of the public sphere, mainly from the field of postmodern studies. The present author has in other places criticised the dismissal of Habermas and the public sphere concept and argues that Habermas’ concept is useful in and can be updated to the digital age (see Fuchs, 2014b).
The digital public sphere is not a separate sphere of society, but a dimension and aspect of the public sphere in societies where digital information and digital communication are prevalent. The digital public sphere means the publishing of information, critical publicity, and critical public debate mediated by digital information and communication technologies. Not all information and communication via the Internet, mobile phones, and tablets is part of the digital public sphere. When processes of commodification and capitalisation (the logic of economic accumulation), domination (the logic of political accumulation), and ideology (the logic of political accumulation) shape digital practices, the latter do not form a public sphere. The digital public sphere has then, as Habermas (1989) argues, been colonised and feudalised. We can then speak of an alienated digital sphere and alienated communication but not of a digital public sphere. The ten processes outlined in the previous section are manifestations of digital alienation, digital colonisation, and digital feudalisation.
The mentioned ten tendencies lead overall to a digital sphere that is characterised and divided by economic, political, and cultural power asymmetries. The logics of accumulation, advertising, monopolisation, commercialisation, commodification, acceleration, individualism, fragmentation, automation of human activity, surveillance, and ideologisation turn the digital public sphere into a colonised and feudalised sphere, a pseudo-digital public sphere that is public in appearance only. In digital capitalism, commercial culture dominates the Internet and social media. Platforms are largely owned by profit-oriented corporations. Public service media operate on the basis of a different logic. However, the idea of a public Internet has not yet been able to establish itself and sounds strange to most ears, as there are hardly any alternatives to the commercial Internet today.
Public service media are media of, in and operating through the public sphere. The communication scholar Slavko Splichal (2007: 255) gives a precise definition of public service media:
In normative terms, public service media must be a service of the public, by the public, and for the public. It is a service of the public because it is financed by it and should be owned by it. It ought to be a service by the public – not only financed and controlled, but also produced by it. It must be a service for the public – but also for the government and other powers acting in the public sphere. In sum, public service media ought to become ‘a cornerstone of democracy’.
The means of production of public service media are publicly owned. The production and circulation of content is based on a non-profit-making logic and the public service media remit. Access is universal, as all citizens are given easy access to the content and technologies of public service media. In political terms, public service media offer diverse and inclusive content that promotes political understanding and discourse. In cultural terms, they offer educational content that contributes to the cultural development of individuals and society. Public service media have a special, legally defined remit, namely that they have to produce and provide content and services that help to advance democracy, education, and culture. In debates, public service media such as the BBC are often incorrectly presented as state media or state-controlled media. True public service media are legally enabled by the state (licence fee funding, public service remit), but not controlled by the state. Public service media are independent media organisations that are enabled by state laws.
Due to the special qualities of public service media, they can also make a particularly valuable democratic and educational contribution to a democratic online public sphere and digital democracy if they are given the necessary material and legal means to do so. Life in modern society has increasingly been accelerated, which includes the acceleration of the economy, political decision-making, lifestyles, and experiences (Fuchs, 2014a; Rosa, 2013). The logic of accumulation is the driving force of acceleration (see Fuchs, 2014a). As a consequence, the speed of social relations has been increased, especially since the rise of neoliberal capitalism. In the realm of the media, the acceleration of information flows has been an aspect of the tabloidisation of media and communication that in turn is an aspect of the commercialisation, monopolisation, and commodification of the media. The predominant media are high-speed spectacles that are superficial and characterised by a lack of time provided for debate. They erode the public sphere and the culture of political discussion. They leave no time or space to citizens for grasping the complexity of society and for developing arguments. What we need today is the decommodification and deceleration of the media. We need slow media (see Fuchs, 2021; Köhler, David and Blumtritt, 2010; Rauch, 2018).”
(https://www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/917/)