He believes that when people talk and discuss the world, political problems and standings that is when we achieve a strong democracy and beliefs within society.

Habermas states that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.

above all, the emergence of an independent, market based press created a new public engaged in critical political discussion.

public sphere- The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.

private sphere– The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by interventions from governmental or other institutions.

Habermas believes that democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware, and which debates the issues of the day.

He wrote his theory in 1962

The Public Sphere:

The public sphere is the arena where citizens come together, exchange opinions regarding public affairs, discuss, deliberate, and eventually form public opinion.

Example – town hall

Public sphere in media:

The public sphere is the realm of communication and debate that came to life with the emergence of mass communication in the form of a relatively small-scale and independent press in the 18th and 19th century.

‘Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.’

‘created a new public engaged in critical political thinking’

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. A “Public” is “of or concerning the people as a whole.” Public Sphere is a place common to all, where ideas and information can be exchanged. Such a discussion is called public debate and is defined as the expression of views on matters that are of concern to the public—often, but not always, with opposing or diverging views being expressed by participants in the discussion.

The idea of mass media production such as newspapers shows the death and reduction of the public sphere as less and less opinions of the people are being shared and received less.

It is argued that “a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed and ‘popular’ supervision of government was established” 

Curran and Seaton

“the free market makes the press a representative institution”