preview

Essay on The Public Sphere

Decent Essays

The Public Sphere So many definitions are there of the public sphere. One can range from a scale as small as a township to a scale as large as a national government. In the earlier post-revolutionary days of the
United States, just what the United States actually was and what it meant were still being defined. Now that the revolution was over, words such as nationalism and patriotism must be redefined. Many politicians, political groups, and the general public all desired to have a say in what they believed to be the true nature of this newly formed country. The best way to do this, of course, is in a public format where people could listen to the opinions of others, or retort and …show more content…

Now, politics was not an issue to be delt with solely by the upper-class. David Waldstreicher in writing about the effect that print had on public celebrations, such as parades, states Through the new media of journalism, urban festival reached an expanding audience. . . Even the new, bourgeois public sphere can be seen as a locus for relating and debating the deeds of a politically active populace (20).
Everybody was getting involved. While these people debated the new meaning of nationalism, among other issues, just the fact that more and more people were partaking in these events was part of that new definition of nationalism. At a first glance, it may be difficult to see the importance of a parade or other sort of celebration in political terms. However, they were a phenomenal way to express a political idea, to try to get other people to jump on ones political bandwagon, or most importantly, to incite political action. Waldstreicher writes “...celebration, which may appear to us distanced, second-hand and unconnected to real life or politics, seemed at the time to open up a greater sphere of action for more and more citizens”(111) Action is the key word in that sentence.
If a certain parade or any other kind of celebration draws forth a particular political desire in an on-looker, then the parade has fulfilled its purpose. The public display of any kind of political sentiment that perhaps causes people to

Get Access