Theoretical Aspects of Mediated Public Space, as the Environment of Modern Political Participation

• Author: Coman, C
• Position: Department of Social Sciences and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 15-20

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 1 - 2013

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF MEDIATED

PUBLIC SPACE, AS THE ENVIRONMENT

OF MODERN POLITICAL

PARTICIPATION

Claudiu COMAN1

Abstract: The public sphere, a central habermasian concept , with capitalist

origins, becomes the environment of political actors’ participation that allows

mass communication. This article describes in detail the dichotomy and the

various perspectives of public and private space, including the modern

implications of media, primarily TV, regarding th e reconfiguration of public

space (social and political). In the modern age, the n ew mediated public space

brings new facets of communication situations, including the political side.

Key words: public sphere, mediated public space, mass communication,

political communication.

1 Department of Social Sciences and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov.

1. Introduction

The distinction between private and

public has a long history in the social and

political thinking. The development of

the means of communication (i.e., the

media), especially television, turned the

decisive nature of the public sphere. Any

discussion about the appearance and / or

the extension of the public sphere in the

capitalist society, which is a specific

product of capitalism structure, should be

based on the works of Jurgen Habermas.

It is often said that in contemporary

societies the communication is generally

mediated, which comes to include the

habermasian “public sphere”. Habermas

(1989, 1998) described the public sphere

as “the sphere of individuals meeting in

public” that claims it (even if regulated

by the authorities, its orientation is

against the power, being, in this way able

to discuss with the power the general

rules of trade). Public space becomes

“the place of political participation,

understood as an expression of interests

and deliberations, decisions and power

control”. Reynie apud [4, p. 146].

2. Media and the dichotomy between

the public and the private sphere

Mass media, which initially was the

essential support for free public debate,

has changed, especially after it began to

be felt the hegemony of the television,

becoming its removal tool.

According to Habermas [6, p. 168], the

individual, as public actor on the

political stage, was exiled in a uniform

and isolated domestic space:

„the reduction of the private sphere in