Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate

CHAPTER 7. THE EXPANDING PUBLIC SPHERE 106
are a function of the number of contributions made to the newsgroup. This finding
suggests that reciprocity is not only high, but a function of participation rather
than social attributes.
The fact that the newsgroup was found to be diverse and reciprocal, but neither
equal nor of quality, poses a challenge for those wishing to understand the public
sphere. It could be that the particular topic at hand – abortion – is likely to result
in a public shere with this particular configuration. On the other hand, it could be
that the communications technology employed – computer mediated discussion –
yields these results. Additional research in which the topic and the technology are
systematically varied is necessary to understand the relationship between these
two factors and the dimensions of the public sphere.
Computer mediated technologies, including those deployed today as Usenet newsgroups,
have great potential to strengthen the crucial informal zone. Even though
the group was found to be inequal and of less-than-hoped for quality, the possible
“solutions” to these problems would cause more harm than good. For example,
having an individual moderate the newsgroup – deciding which messages to allow,
and which messages to exclude – would have the effect of introducing editorial
control into the public sphere. Once the power to manage the group is removed
from each individual participant, and transfered to a “representative” of the participants,
the democratic character of the arena is compromised. The impact of such
a solution would be to reduce the conversation to reflect those topics the editor
deemed appropriate, and prevent it from being the open-ended and wide-ranging
forum that it is. These are precisely the qualities that Habermas (1996) suggests
ought to be part of the construction of the informal zone of the public sphere.
Alternatively, individual participants ought to develop the skills to self-manage
their conversations. In the newsgroup environment, these skills can be as simple
as ignoring messages by specific authors and as complex as writing programs to
automatically exclude such messages.
Opportunities to engage other citizens in conversation always have a net benefit
to democracy. The quality of the informal zone of the public sphere is improved
every time citizens discuss political issues in a public setting that is equal, diverse,
reciprocal and of high quality. Such opportunities to expand the informal zone of
the public sphere ought to be encouraged whenever and wherever possible.