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Public sphereHabermas:A democratic political culture where people can, outside state’s supervision, have critical debates and can reason freely
Succes depends onEqualityCan everyone access it?Does everyone have a vote?Effective deliberation and discussion
(‘procedures of open discussion aimed at achieving rationality motivated consensus’, Dahlgren, 2006)
CritiqueNot very democratic at all….
Exclusion of everyone but white bourgeois males (Garnham, 1992)
But….The internet!
Twitter‘Real-time information network’Communication through ‘tweets’ (140
characters)Microblog, ‘SMS of the internet’
Global: rank 9 (Alexa)US: rank 10 (Quantcast)/
rank 7 (Alexa)
Sources: alexa.com / quantcast.com
If only 100 people were on twitter
Source: http://www.sysomos.com/ (Picture from: Visualized, the Information Atlas (not yet published), www.visualizedthebook.com)
Twitter study (1)
Source: http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf
Twitter study (2)
Source: http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf
So, ís twitter the ideal place to have critical debate and discussion? (1)
Equality +Accesibility +/-Everyone has a voice +Limited space (140 characters) -
So, ís twitter the ideal place to have critical debate and discussion? (2)Possible to interact (‘@’) +Most topics not serious (‘pointless blabber’) -People do not always comment on each other
-Really outside state supervision? -
Example: miljoenennota (budget memorandum)
Traditional media follow
Possibilities to interact
ButOnly a minority uses twitter to discuss the
newsMostly short statements, not
a lot of reactions, no real interaction
A lot of politiciansNot always serious
ConclusionTwitter has elements of a public sphereBut, 140 characters are too short for effective
deliberation and discussionMost of tweets not seriousMost twitter users do not interact
In my opinion Twitter is not a public sphere
The end Feel free to ask questions if you have any!
