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The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere

Year 2021, Issue: 10, 145 - 159, 30.05.2021

Abstract

The internet and its surrounding technologies hold the promise of reviving the public sphere; however, several aspects of these new technologies simultaneously curtail and augment that potential. First, the data storage and retrieval capabilities of internet-based technologies infuse political discussion with information otherwise unavailable. At the same time, information access inequalities and new media literacy compromise the representativeness of the virtual sphere. Second, internet-based technologies enable discussion between people on far sides of the globe, but also frequently fragmentize political discourse. Third, given the patterns of global capitalism, it is possible that internet- based technologies will adapt themselves to the current political culture, rather than create a new one. The internet and related technologies have created a new public space for politically oriented conversation; whether this public space transcends to a public sphere is not up to the technology itself.

References

  • Abramson, J.B., F.C. Arterton and G.R. Orren (1988) The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics. New York: Basic Books.
  • Arterton, F.C. (1987) Teledemocracy: Can Technology Protect Democracy? Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  • Bagdikian, B. (1983) The Media Monopoly. Boston, MA: Beacon.
  • Barlow, J.P. (1995) ‘A Globe, Clothing Itself with a Brain’, Wired 3(6): 108.
  • Barrett, J. (1996) ‘Killing Time: The New Frontier of Cyberspace Capitalism’, in L. Strate, R. Jacobson and S.R. Gibson (eds) Communication and Cyberspace, ss. 155–66. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
  • Bell, D. (1981) ‘The Social Framework of the Information Society’, in T. Forester (ed.) The Microelectronics Revolution, ss. 500–49. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Bellah, R.N., R. Madsen, W.M. Sullivan, A. Swidler and S.M. Tipton (1985) Habits of the Heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Bowen, C. (1996) Modern Nation: The Handbook of Grassroots American Activism Online. New York: Random House.
  • Breslow, H. (1997) ‘Civil Society, Political Economy, and the Internet’, in S. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 236-57. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
  • Browning, G. (1996) Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics. Wilton, CT: Pemberton Press.
  • Cappella, J. and K.H. Jamieson (1996) ‘News Frames, Political Cynicism, and Media Cynicism’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 71–85.
  • Cappella, J. and K.H. Jamieson (1997) Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Carey, J. (1995) ‘The Press, Public Opinion, and Public Discourse’, in T. Glasser and C. Salmon (eds) Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent, ss. 373–402. New York: Guilford.
  • Dewey, J. (1927) The Public and its Problems. New York: Holt.
  • Douglas, S.J. (1987) Reinventing American Broadcasting. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Ettema, J.S. and D.C. Whitney (1994) ‘The Money Arrow: An Introduction to Audiencemaking’, in J.S. Ettema and D.C. Whitney (eds) Audiencemaking, ss. 1–18. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fallows, J. (1996) ‘Why Americans Hate the Media’, The Atlantic Monthly (February) 277 (2): 45–64.
  • Fernback, J. (1997) ‘The Individual within the Collective: Virtual Ideology and the Realization of Collective Principles’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 36–54. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Fraser, N. (1992) ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy’, in C. Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, ss. 109–42. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Garnham, N. (1992) ‘The Media and the Public Sphere’, in C. Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, ss. 359–76. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Global Reach (2001) ‘Global Internet Statistics’, URL (Ocak 2001’de erişildi): http://www.euromktg.com/globstats
  • Grossman, L.K. (1995) The Electronic Republic. New York: Viking.
  • Habermas, J. (1962/1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of a Bourgeois Society, çev. T. Burger and F. Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Habermas, J. (1991) ‘The Public Sphere’, in C. Mukerji and M. Schudson (eds) Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies, ss. 398–404. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Hart, R.P. (1994) ‘Easy Citizenship: Television’s Curious Legacy’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 109–20.
  • Hill, K.A. and J.E. Hughes (1998) Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Jankowski, N.W. and M. van Selm (2000) ‘The Promise and Practice of Public Debate in Cyberspace’, in K. Hacker and J. Van Dijk (eds) Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice, ss. 149–65. London: Sage.
  • Jones, S.G. (1997) ‘The Internet and its Social Landscape’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 7–35. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Kling, R. (1996) ‘Hopes and Horrors: Technological Utopianism and Anti-Utopianism in Narratives of Computerization’, in R. Kling (ed.) Computerization and Controversy, ss. 40–58. Boston, MA: Academic Press.
  • Lyotard, J.F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • McChesney, R. (1995) ‘The Internet and US Communication Policy-Making in Historical and Critical Perspective’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 1(4), URL (Ocak 2001’de erişildi): http://www.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/vol1/issue4/ mcchesney.html#Democracy
  • Melucci, A. (1994) ‘A Strange Kind of Newness: What’s “New” in New Social Movements?’, in E. Larana, H. Johnston and J.R. Gusfield (eds) New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, ss. 101–30. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
  • Melucci, A. (1996) Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mitra, A. (1997a) ‘Virtual Community: Looking for India on the Internet’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 55–79. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Mitra, A. (1997b) ‘Diasporic Websites: Ingroup and Outgroup Discourse’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 14(2): 158–81.
  • Negroponte, N. (1998) ‘Beyond Digital’, Wired 6(12): 288.
  • Ogilvy, J. (1998) ‘Dark Side of the Boom: Interview with Manuel Castells’, Wired 6(11): 188.
  • Patterson, T. (1993) Out of Order. New York: Knopf.
  • Patterson, T. (1996) ‘Bad News, Bad Governance’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 97–108.
  • Pavlik, J.V. (1994) ‘Citizen Access, Involvement, and Freedom of Expression in an Electronic Environment’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 139–62. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Poster, M. (1995) ‘The Internet as a Public Sphere?’, Wired 3(1): 209.
  • Putnam, R.D. (1996) ‘The Strange Disappearance of Civic America’, The American Prospect 24(1): 34–48.
  • Rash, W., Jr (1997) Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process. New York: W.H. Freeman.
  • Rheingold, H. (1993) The Virtual Community. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Schement, J. and T. Curtis (1997) Tendencies and Tensions of the Information Age: The Production and Distribution of Information in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Schudson, M. (1997) ‘Why Conversation is Not the Soul of Democracy’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 14(4): 1–13.
  • Schmitz, J. (1997) ‘Structural Relations, Electronic Media, and Social Change: The Public Electronic Network and the Homeless’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, pp. 80–101. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Tocqueville, A.D. (1990) Democracy in America, Vol. 1. New York: Vintage Classics.
  • Williams, F. (1994) ‘On Prospects for Citizens’ Information Services’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 3–24. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Williams, F., and Pavlik, J.V. (1994) ‘Epilogue’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 211–24. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Sanal Mekan: Kamusal Bir Mekân Olarak İnternet

Year 2021, Issue: 10, 145 - 159, 30.05.2021

Abstract

İnternet ve onu çevreleyen teknolojiler, kamusal mekanı yeniden canlandırma vaadini taşımaktadır; ancak bu yeni teknolojilerin çeşitli yönleri eş zamanlı olarak bu potansiyeli azaltmakta ve arttırmaktadır. Birincisi, internet tabanlı teknolojilerin veri depolama ve bilgiye erişme kabiliyetleri, siyasi tartışmayı başka türlü var olmayan enformasyon ile doldurur. Aynı zamanda enformasyona erişmedeki eşitsizlikler ve yeni medya okuryazarlığı sanal mekanın temsil edilebilirliğini tehlikeye atmaktadır. İkincisi, internet tabanlı teknolojiler dünyanın uzak yerlerindeki insanlar arasında tartışmayı mümkün kılmakta, fakat bununla birlikte çoğu zaman politik söylemi de parçalarına ayırmaktadır. Üçüncüsü, küresel kapitalizmin kalıpları göz önüne alındığında, internet tabanlı teknolojilerin yeni bir kültür yaratmaktan ziyade kendilerini mevcut siyasi kültüre uyarlaması mümkündür. İnternet ve bağlı teknolojiler, teknolojinin kendisine bağlı olmayan bir kamusal mekana dönüşse de dönüşmese de, siyasi odaklı diyalog için yeni bir kamusal alan yaratmıştır.

References

  • Abramson, J.B., F.C. Arterton and G.R. Orren (1988) The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics. New York: Basic Books.
  • Arterton, F.C. (1987) Teledemocracy: Can Technology Protect Democracy? Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  • Bagdikian, B. (1983) The Media Monopoly. Boston, MA: Beacon.
  • Barlow, J.P. (1995) ‘A Globe, Clothing Itself with a Brain’, Wired 3(6): 108.
  • Barrett, J. (1996) ‘Killing Time: The New Frontier of Cyberspace Capitalism’, in L. Strate, R. Jacobson and S.R. Gibson (eds) Communication and Cyberspace, ss. 155–66. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
  • Bell, D. (1981) ‘The Social Framework of the Information Society’, in T. Forester (ed.) The Microelectronics Revolution, ss. 500–49. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Bellah, R.N., R. Madsen, W.M. Sullivan, A. Swidler and S.M. Tipton (1985) Habits of the Heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Bowen, C. (1996) Modern Nation: The Handbook of Grassroots American Activism Online. New York: Random House.
  • Breslow, H. (1997) ‘Civil Society, Political Economy, and the Internet’, in S. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 236-57. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
  • Browning, G. (1996) Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics. Wilton, CT: Pemberton Press.
  • Cappella, J. and K.H. Jamieson (1996) ‘News Frames, Political Cynicism, and Media Cynicism’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 71–85.
  • Cappella, J. and K.H. Jamieson (1997) Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Carey, J. (1995) ‘The Press, Public Opinion, and Public Discourse’, in T. Glasser and C. Salmon (eds) Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent, ss. 373–402. New York: Guilford.
  • Dewey, J. (1927) The Public and its Problems. New York: Holt.
  • Douglas, S.J. (1987) Reinventing American Broadcasting. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Ettema, J.S. and D.C. Whitney (1994) ‘The Money Arrow: An Introduction to Audiencemaking’, in J.S. Ettema and D.C. Whitney (eds) Audiencemaking, ss. 1–18. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fallows, J. (1996) ‘Why Americans Hate the Media’, The Atlantic Monthly (February) 277 (2): 45–64.
  • Fernback, J. (1997) ‘The Individual within the Collective: Virtual Ideology and the Realization of Collective Principles’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 36–54. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Fraser, N. (1992) ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy’, in C. Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, ss. 109–42. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Garnham, N. (1992) ‘The Media and the Public Sphere’, in C. Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, ss. 359–76. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Global Reach (2001) ‘Global Internet Statistics’, URL (Ocak 2001’de erişildi): http://www.euromktg.com/globstats
  • Grossman, L.K. (1995) The Electronic Republic. New York: Viking.
  • Habermas, J. (1962/1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of a Bourgeois Society, çev. T. Burger and F. Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Habermas, J. (1991) ‘The Public Sphere’, in C. Mukerji and M. Schudson (eds) Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies, ss. 398–404. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Hart, R.P. (1994) ‘Easy Citizenship: Television’s Curious Legacy’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 109–20.
  • Hill, K.A. and J.E. Hughes (1998) Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Jankowski, N.W. and M. van Selm (2000) ‘The Promise and Practice of Public Debate in Cyberspace’, in K. Hacker and J. Van Dijk (eds) Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice, ss. 149–65. London: Sage.
  • Jones, S.G. (1997) ‘The Internet and its Social Landscape’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 7–35. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Kling, R. (1996) ‘Hopes and Horrors: Technological Utopianism and Anti-Utopianism in Narratives of Computerization’, in R. Kling (ed.) Computerization and Controversy, ss. 40–58. Boston, MA: Academic Press.
  • Lyotard, J.F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • McChesney, R. (1995) ‘The Internet and US Communication Policy-Making in Historical and Critical Perspective’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 1(4), URL (Ocak 2001’de erişildi): http://www.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/vol1/issue4/ mcchesney.html#Democracy
  • Melucci, A. (1994) ‘A Strange Kind of Newness: What’s “New” in New Social Movements?’, in E. Larana, H. Johnston and J.R. Gusfield (eds) New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, ss. 101–30. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
  • Melucci, A. (1996) Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mitra, A. (1997a) ‘Virtual Community: Looking for India on the Internet’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ss. 55–79. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Mitra, A. (1997b) ‘Diasporic Websites: Ingroup and Outgroup Discourse’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 14(2): 158–81.
  • Negroponte, N. (1998) ‘Beyond Digital’, Wired 6(12): 288.
  • Ogilvy, J. (1998) ‘Dark Side of the Boom: Interview with Manuel Castells’, Wired 6(11): 188.
  • Patterson, T. (1993) Out of Order. New York: Knopf.
  • Patterson, T. (1996) ‘Bad News, Bad Governance’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 546: 97–108.
  • Pavlik, J.V. (1994) ‘Citizen Access, Involvement, and Freedom of Expression in an Electronic Environment’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 139–62. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Poster, M. (1995) ‘The Internet as a Public Sphere?’, Wired 3(1): 209.
  • Putnam, R.D. (1996) ‘The Strange Disappearance of Civic America’, The American Prospect 24(1): 34–48.
  • Rash, W., Jr (1997) Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process. New York: W.H. Freeman.
  • Rheingold, H. (1993) The Virtual Community. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Schement, J. and T. Curtis (1997) Tendencies and Tensions of the Information Age: The Production and Distribution of Information in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Schudson, M. (1997) ‘Why Conversation is Not the Soul of Democracy’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 14(4): 1–13.
  • Schmitz, J. (1997) ‘Structural Relations, Electronic Media, and Social Change: The Public Electronic Network and the Homeless’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, pp. 80–101. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Tocqueville, A.D. (1990) Democracy in America, Vol. 1. New York: Vintage Classics.
  • Williams, F. (1994) ‘On Prospects for Citizens’ Information Services’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 3–24. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Williams, F., and Pavlik, J.V. (1994) ‘Epilogue’, in F. Williams and J.V. Pavlik (eds) The People’s Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway, ss. 211–24. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
There are 49 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Journal Section Translation
Authors

Zizi Papacharissi This is me

Translators

Şeyda Koçak Kurt

Publication Date May 30, 2021
Submission Date May 15, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2021 Issue: 10

Cite

APA Papacharissi, Z. (2021). Sanal Mekan: Kamusal Bir Mekân Olarak İnternet (Ş. Koçak Kurt, Trans.). Yeni Medya, 2021(10), 145-159.

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