The Media and the Public Sphere: A Deliberative Model of Democracy

Abstract

At the heart of modern democracy lies the public sphere, which is most centrally shaped by those actors that integrate it discursively: the mass media. The media draws together the different strands of political debates; they grant access to some actors and arguments, while excluding others, and thus decisively mould the political process. In this book, Thomas Haussler examines how the media reflects and reacts to the wider context in which they are embedded. More specifically, he focuses on whether their discourse demonstrates systematic differences with regard to the two main public sphere types that they co-constitute, according to deliberative theory, focusing in particular on the work of Jurgen Habermas. The Media and the Public Sphere promotes a deeper a more detailed understanding of the political process by foregrounding the complex relationships between the media and the public discourse they constitute. It examines how the media co-creates relationships of power, analyses the structure of these discursive networks, and illuminates the effects different deliberative coalition types have on political debates.

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