Communications Technology and the Public Sphere

READING Habermas: The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964) Enzensberger: Constituents of a Theory of the Media (1970)

writing printing literacy newspapers photography telegraph film radio tv computing internet/web read-write web

properties of media

hand-copied manuscript

hand-copied manuscript high cost precious takes a long time to create may be altered or amended in the copying process

moveable type

moveable type lower cost more copies less precious – more access more likely to circulate quicker to create

moveable type Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one.

motion pictures

motion pictures high expense one program - many viewers seats and screen immobile audience

motion pictures turn off cell phones and refrain from conversation one-to-many communication: school, church, movie house

Video

video cheaper faster can be real-time

television

television in the home...or bar, waiting room, airport broadcast television limited channels cable television many channels – few owners

television a vast wasteland? (1961 speech by FCC Chair Newton Minow)

1984 Mac Ad

Jurgen Habermas – b Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere pub (English translation 1989) The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964)

Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion – that is, with the guarantee of freedom of assembly and association and the freedom to express and publish their opinions - about matters of general interest.

KEY TERMS: public sphere civil society communicative action Fourth Estate (the press) clergy nobility bourgeoisie/commoners press where... public opinion... can be formed establishing societal norms

Hans Magnus Enzensberger b 1929 Constituents of a Theory of the Media (1970)