Impact Of The Internet On Public Sphere Essay

The internet is our modern source for news media; the importance of the newspaper has not only declined, it is in a sense, obsolete. We now turn to the internet for opinions, news, and entertainment. Even though the way in which we consume information (PBS) has changed, the importance of an unrestricted and watchful media has not changed. (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2010)

The media use used by countless people every day and has helped shaped the way America is today. However, Charles Seife in the “Loneliness of the Interconnected”, argues that the media actually has the opposite result and it actually makes society more distant. The media provides us the medium to present our ideas to the world and find others who support their very ideas, and because of this we are only interested in the opinions and facts that agree with our own. So, as the people in society choose exactly what they want to listen to, they isolate themselves from divergent ideas. And since we are distant, we are becoming an ignorant society simply due to the fact that we are stubborn to hear and be exposed to other’s opinions. Seife is a

As time and history have progressed, the institution of media has captured and held control over the public ideology. In this modern capitalistic age, the power held over the media as developed and been re-directed. The media acts as the key distributor and translator of the ideology within our society throughout history and in the present day. However, the context in which we communicate is changing, and with this, the relationship and interaction between politics, media and public life have altered (Blair, T 2007). Changed to an extent where the information being relayed may indeed be harmful to society, in the absence of objective, complete and accurate relaying of information (Blair, T 2007). Though the free society that we operate in does

Rethinking The Public Sphere is a response to Habermas' 1973 essay, later published in English as The Public Sphere in 1989. Habermas states his concept of the public sphere as both historical, and normative. It is historical both in the sense of era and region- 20th century Western Europe. He dismantles the distinctions between the public and private domain.

The data is then sent back through the system to the original user. The information that is on the data coming back could have came from a wide array of sources such as books, financial markets, embedded chips or even made up by someone trying to fool the user. The History? The Internet is first

The media specialises in providing information, or ‘news’, to the public. The terms of public ‘wants’ and public ‘needs’ create polarising views from both the media and the audience as both parties have different ideas on the importance of each. However, Gladstone raises the more important question of whether there is even a ‘unitary public’

“The collective opinion of many people on some issue, problem, etc., especially as a guide to action, decision, or the like.” Dictionary.com. 2015. dictionary.reference.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/public-opinion. [Accessed 17 November 15]. When looking at the cultural, financial and ideological aspects of our world today it is hard to dismiss the pressing influence that the media has. In this essay I will be analysing how the media uses different methods to manipulate the public and the influence it has on society and how it shapes public opinion, alongside public opinion in democracy now. I will also be discussing theories in which people don’t believe the media moulds the public’s opinions. The media industry is very essential but on the other hand the public opinion is indispensable, without the public opinion there is no media. The media becomes an influential determinant of public opinion, and sometimes it has the power to change public sentiments in terms of controversial issues.

“The media are a primary source of those pictures in our heads about the larger world of public affairs, a world that for most citizens is ‘out of reach, out sight, out of mind’ and what we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us” (McCombs).

Rethinking The Public Sphere is a response to Habermas' 1973 essay, later published in English as The Public Sphere in 1989. Habermas states his concept of the public sphere as both historical, and normative. It is historical both in the sense of era and region- 20th century Western Europe. He dismantles the distinctions between the public and private domain.

Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.

At this very moment, there are thousands of people worldwide who are retweeting posts on Twitter, liking pictures on Instagram or posting a status on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are few of the many social media platforms that have become prevalent in our society. Because social media applications and websites allow users with easy access to communication with others around the world, individuals all across the globe are able to socially interact on a daily basis. Erving Goffman, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, three of many sociologists who viewed society through the interactionist perspective, would use these daily interactions to make generalizations about society as a whole. The paradigm of symbolic interactionism reaches conclusion about different groups in society, generally by observing everyday social interactions. Accordingly, interactionists would view social media as an aspect of society that consists of constant social interactions that continuously influences and affects individuals and the whole of society.

The prevalence of the internet has had a tremendous impact on American society in terms of physical health and emotional well-being. In the following pages, I will attempt to briefly highlight some of the positive and negative impacts I feel today’s internet technology has had on people living in The United States of America.

From the variety of hot topics that are covered by news, we can see that influence of the public opinion from the Internet cannot not be underestimated, but the scholars have a different view against ‘Could the Internet be the public sphere’. In this essay, commenting function in Yahoo News articles will be used to evaluate its performance of opinions expressions with Habermas’ normative standard for public sphere, and to discuss the limitation of Habermas’ deliberative approach of the public sphere within the Internet.

There are dangers of online communication such as social networks where users can lie about who they are [4]“Megan thought she was being abused by 16-year-old Josh Evans, she was actually talking to Lori Drew, the 49-year-old mother of one of her former friends who, it is alleged, had set up a fake profile to taunt Megan.” in social networking sites it is very easy for people to

Time and progression are usually concepts that are found to work in unison, and this connection is profoundly present in the development of technology. Human advancements in the creation of life altering machinery has taken leaps and bounds in terms of how it has altered society, yet one has to consider the effects these developments have on already existing methods of a functioning civilization. One example of this phenomenon is the expansion of journalism from a closely knit field providing the news to an entirely open platform, via the internet, offering anyone the chance to spread information with previously unheard of haste. Attempting to impede the ever extending hand of change is an impossible task; however, it leads to an interesting argument about the impact of information sharing—particularly concerning journalism—now that there is such a readily available line of communication that can reach near anywhere in the world. As knowledge now resides a few button clicks away it brings about speculation considering integrity of the author and information that are presented, both of which seem to have been further diminished by the vast range of who can offer news in this modern digital age.