Media Technology And The Construction Of The Public Sphere

In the Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Habermas first proposed the concept of " public sphere ". It is ideal space, and composed by the bourgeois private, independent of the political state. It contends to political power in the form of public opinion. The ideal space for criticism has changed with the transformation of social welfare state and the communication structure owing to the mass media. In the next social context, Habermas doesn’t abandon the "public sphere" concept because of the transformation of the bourgeois public sphere, and he re-examines the public sphere with communicative reason and discourse theory in the theory of communicative action perspective. Communicative reason provides ideal conditions for debate and critical communication in the public sphere, and constructs a framework for the free and public discussion. Public sphere still needs discourse which points to the reality of communicative reason, and discourse is a mechanism for communication in public sphere, and it provides clear communicative methods and principles for the public reaching public opinions. From the bourgeois public sphere to the modern public sphere media technology has shown a pivotal role. Print media can lead to subjectivity resonance, and promote consensus on the public affairs, and it has effectively constructed bourgeois public sphere. Commercialization of print media, audio-visual media and electronic media has resulted in digestion and being manipulated of public opinions, and causing structural transformation of the public sphere. The emergence of contemporary new media technologies has changed the power structure of the media, and can contribute to the formation of the public sphere. To highlight the role of new media technologies in the public sphere, respectively expounding how influence communicative reason and discourse. Mutual and mobile media technologies create a free and equal, diverse and inclusive, open and transparent atmosphere, and provides the appropriate context for the communicative reason in the public sphere but there is repressive influence and exclusive impact from inequality in the distribution of information rights, structural defects and interference by power and money which limit the effect of communicative reason. Mutual and mobile media technologies can form a mechanism of media participation for the public to understand public affairs information, and express interests and needs. They provide effective channels for the public to participate democratic discuss, and oversight political power agencies, but there are communicative restrictions, cognitive limitations and motivative restrictions, and these problems restrict the discourse. Nevertheless, in Chinses current context there is a trend of media technology constructing the public sphere. Promoting media technology to construct the public sphere, we must make specific requests from the government, media workers and the public, and support the favorable impact of media technology on communicative reason and discourse.