Page 29 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 2. Literature review

The public sphere here represented a social need to turn political authority to a

rational authority through individuals and groups congregating, debating and deliberat-
ing to form public opinion (Habermas, 1989). It acted as mediation for the interaction
between the government and the public (Poster, 2001). Consequently, Xia and Huang
(2008) pointed out that the concept of the public sphere is formed on the basis of the

division between the state and the society, and an antagonistic relationship between the
individual sphere and the authority sphere. The assembly of individuals forms a politi-
cally-critical opinion space which oversees and influences the state.

The public sphere as proposed by Habermas can be seen as an introspection of
capitalist society in the 19th century. It is worth pointing out that the ultimate goal of
the public sphere is to cater to the needs and interests of the public, and to establish
public recognition. No matter if it is in a capitalist country or a welfare state, these

‘public’ factors are essential to the public sphere (Xiong, 2012). Hu (2014) reinforced
the notion of the public sphere as a space for citizens to freely discuss and identify
public problems and engage in the state’s political actions, referring to a realm beyond
political authority which represents the postulate of democracy.

From these previous studies, one can identify three key elements involved in the
public sphere: the public, public opinion and a public medium. ‘The public’ refers to a
certain number of citizens who have gathered voluntarily, who are not constrained by
the government or any kind of political authority. They put individual or group interest

aside to debate social and political issues for the sake of the common good. ‘Public
opinion’ is the consensus built on critical consciousness which evaluates, supervises
and regulates the government’s actions. ‘A public medium’ refers to a platform or chan-

nel where public opinion is cultivated and disseminated.

2.2.2 The public sphere: from the perspective of the media

Habermas (1996) raised an additional concept, the ‘political public sphere’ which
offered innovative understandings of the previous notion of the public sphere. He pro-
posed that the public sphere should be seen as an ‘early warning system and a sensor’

(Habermas, 1996, p.359) for societal problems, which not only detected and identified

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