Article:
Im Archiv der Öffentlichkeit. Rückblick auf eine fixe Idee, die das demokratische Bewusstsein vor fünfzig Jahren heimgesucht hat

Author(s): Maresch, Rudolf

Abstract

Due to the transformation of digital media, the notion of “publicity” has become problematic. In most cases, the debate is focused on the question whether the internet causes a decline of so-called civic publicity or rather intensifies and pluralizes it. Rudolf Maresch outlines Jürgen Habermas's famous study of this category and challenges his claim concerning its “structural transformation,” referring to the governmental and medial processes which have always already controlled every form of communication. Publicity, he claims, is an epiphenomenon not only of print media, but of a general addressability of subjects, that has been produced previously by postal services. Today, he concludes, publicity is a concept that competes with other offers of mass media, which are all based on criteria of novelty and excitement. Mercedes Bunz also notes the expansion and pluralization of the public sphere due to the change of digital media, but sees the crucial issues in the design and distribution of knowledge and power by evaluation. So-called human beings no longer decide on the dissemination and evaluation of information, but algorithms, which are for the most part concealed from the public sphere that they produce in the first place. Both authors agree that a pluralization of public sphere(s) has taken place, while Habermas's notion of publicity refers to a single public sphere.

Download icon

Published in:

Preferred Citation
BibTex
Maresch, Rudolf: Im Archiv der Öffentlichkeit. Rückblick auf eine fixe Idee, die das demokratische Bewusstsein vor fünfzig Jahren heimgesucht hat. In: ZMK Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, Jg. 4 (2013), Nr. 2, S. 53-61. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18532.
@ARTICLE{Maresch2013,
 author = {Maresch, Rudolf},
 title = {Im Archiv der Öffentlichkeit. Rückblick auf eine fixe Idee, die das demokratische Bewusstsein vor fünfzig Jahren heimgesucht hat},
 year = 2013,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18532}",
 volume = 4,
 address = {Hamburg},
 journal = {ZMK Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung},
 number = 2,
 pages = {53--61},
}
Keywords
license icon

As long as there is no further specification, the item is under the following license: Creative Commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen