"THE SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PUBLIC SPHERE: THE RISE OF SOCIAL OPPOSITION"

Abstract

In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Habermas described the bourgeois public spheres of the 18th and 19th century in England, France, and Germany. These spheres arose as arenas of cultural critique often arising from reading societies that focused on novels and the like. Cultural critique became political critique as these groups turned to issues of public concern fighting policies of censorship and for freedom of opinion. The public sphere is in the work of Jurgen Habermas conceived as a neutral social space for critical debate among private persons who gather to discuss matters of common concern in a free and rational way. This public sphere is open and accessed for public. Habermas pointed out that media has contributed to the decay of the rational-critical discourse and causing the decline of the public sphere. Political public spheres include social movements, media that monitor and criticize the state, and groups that take political action. In recent times have seen an explosion of debate, blogging, theorising and hype around the role of the internet in today’s social movements. Social media -internet applications such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which facilitate the creation and exchange of user-created content- have been identified as key to events as diverse as the rise of student protests in Britain at the end of 2010, the outbreak of revolution in the Arab world - the role that social media played in the Egyptian uprising is striking- and the protests of the Wall Street against the global capitalism in the USA. Discussion of the political impact of social media has focused on the power of mass protests. Social media’s real potential lies in supporting civil society and the public sphere. The social media has become contested terrain, a new form of class struggle, national liberation and pro-democracy movements. In this study, the role of social media in a democratic society, the power of social media on creating a public sphere and the rise of social opposition through social media have been debated on latest examples of global social opposition.

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