The public sphere (habermas) is where individuals can come together and discuss the media freely, new media helps and hinders that. The public space should be working in the interest of the public.

“a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opionion was formed and ‘popular’ supervision of government was established” (p. 82: 1996)

media as watchdog -James Curran

“a public sphere between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed”

“the public sphere came to be dominated by an expandedstate and organized economic interests”

“primary role of media is to act as a public watchdog overseeing the state”

should media be state owned or free media