Jurgen Habermas stated, in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, “the public sphere as a functional element in the political realm was given the normative status of an organ for the self-articulation of civil society with a state authority corresponding to its needs”. That sounds so civilised; so enlightened. And on the face of it, I agree with Habermas, but Alan McKee has some criticisms of the Habermas ideal that cannot be ignored, especially the effects of mass media technologies on the public sphere.
Our ability to horizontally network far beyond the boundaries of physical space, while being bombarded with commercialised multimedia hooks, has facilitated the rise of new “publics”. According to both personal preference and the algorithms generated by the words and search terms we use, we are atomised into mediated subgroups of various identities, based on assorted socio-political criteria, and within our wider popular culture paradigms.
There are many paradoxes in such a highly mediated world. On one hand, fragmenting into interest groups is empowering to those who were previously marginalised or invisible. Conversely, there can be a trivialising effect on important political issues, degrading profound concerns into mere spectacle, and creating echo-chambers of love or loathe, according to the gospel of the most rateable personalities of the day.
In all this, the modern public sphere is an arena guided by the neoliberal hand of the market. Are we still citizens in our technologically constructed world? Maybe, though it’s an unsexy ‘sell’. Today we are primarily commodities – consumers and the consumed – and, if we cannot be bought, sold, or sold to, then we are perceived to be of little use to society at large. This can make one’s place in the world precarious, fostering insecurities that can easily be exploited by political strategists, product advertisers, and opinion shapers, who tell us not what to think so much as what to think about.
The effects of this, despite the appearance of embracing diversity and having equal voice, lies in the homogenising influence on our representation and performance of self in the public sphere. Which is a bit boring, don’t you think? I’d like to see that paradigm subverted, before we are all just the milquetoast followers of someone else’s fashion. All hail the culture jammers! They are needed now more than ever.
