This weeks reading by Z Papacharissi (2002) touches on the idea of the public sphere as well as the potential advantages and disadvantages of us making the transition from face to face communication to the Internet, as our new medium for public opinion and rational debate.
‘The term ‘public’ connotes ideas of citizenship, commonality and things not private, but accessible and observable by all.’ (et al page 10) When referring to the Internets use for the ‘public’ its interesting to note that it is not entirely compliant with these terms. The Internet does in fact have ways of alienating particular groups through passwords and lock out systems. This demolishes the idea of citizenship, commonality and ‘accessible and observable by all’ as with different groups being excluded not everyone is on a level playing field. The fact that many people in the world also fall short of access to the Internet let alone a computer also adds to this sense of discontent with such methods. As well as this, the ability for users to be anonymous online removes incentive for being civil and loyal to each other and invites sinister notions of secrecy and deception being endorsed in an area already overpowered by conflicting parties trying all matter of tricks to get their opinions permanently approved. I feel the suggestion of the Internet being an advance in the public sphere to be a negative step and think in this case the saying ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’, is suiting.
Bibliography
Papacharissi, Z., 2002, The virtual sphere: The internet as a public sphere, New Media and Society, Vol 4, No. 1, pp. 9-27
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