Lincoln Dahlberg

The concept of visibility has been associated with the public sphere conception for a long time. However, the public sphere has not been explicitly defined in terms of visibility. This paper reconstructs from a range of relevant critical and poststructuralist theory a set of public sphere conditions for which the concept of visibility, drawing upon...

This paper highlights, through a critical political economy approach, a number of inequalities, or “divides,” that have been neglected in digital divides research, divides arising from the domination of social media platform ownership by a few for-profit corporations. As a result, the paper calls for an expansion of digital divides research to incl...

This essay briefly reflects upon digital social media in the mid-1990s in order to encourage: first, investigation of pre-twenty first century social media, towards the identification of lessons and resources for present-day research, practice, policy, and activism; and, second, the discursive and socio-historical contextualization of today’s socia...

Discourse theory posits capitalism as a radically contingent discursive system constituted through hegemonic practice. This paper asks what this discursive conception means for the critical analysis of capitalism. To answer this question, the paper first outlines the ways by which this discursive conceptualization enables a critical political econo...

One trenchant critique of the Habermasian public sphere conception, voiced particularly strongly by poststructuralist-influenced critics, is that it fails to fully account for exclusion. In this article I examine the strength of this critique. I begin by demonstrating how Habermasians have in many ways already theorized public sphere exclusion. Giv...

The deliberative conception of the public sphere has proven popular in the critical evaluation of the democratic role of media and communication. However, the concep-tion has come under sustained critique from poststruc-turalist-infl uenced theorists, amongst others, for failing to fully account for the exclusions that result from it being defi ned...

The deliberative conception of the public sphere has proven popular in the critical evaluation of the democratic role of media and communication. However, the conception has come under sustained critique from poststructuralist-influenced theorists, amongst others, for failing to fully account for the exclusions that result from it being defined as...

There is currently a diversity of understandings of digital democracy being deployed within popular commentary, research, policy making, and practical initiative. However, there is a lack of resources clearly outlining this diversity; this article undertakes such an outline. It provides a reconstruction of four digital democracy positions. These fo...

Discourse theory is, at its core, a theory of politics: of the hegemonic formation of social relations — of discourses — that necessarily involve hierarchies of power and relations of inclusion and exclusion. As such, discourse is, in essence, political. And since discursive articulations and contestations rely on forms of mediation, ranging from b...

The signifier discourse is hardly an unfamiliar one in critical media, communication, and cultural studies. As a focal point of theoretical reflection, it may even be considered a bit passé — the residue of an earlier preoccupation with signification and language that has either been superseded by more fashionable theoretical vocabularies, or expos...

AbSTRACT Cyber-libertarian discourse has recently made a "come-back" in popular technology and academic discussions about the democratic potential of "Web 2.0." here, becoming a digital citizen means becoming an autonomous and creative "do-it-yourself citizen-consumer." This paper identifies some of the limits of this "cyber-libertarian 2.0" discou...

Recently there has been some debate between deliberative democrats about whether the internet is leading to the fragmentation of communication into ' like- minded' groups. This article is concerned with what is held in common by both sides of the debate: a public sphere model that aims for all- inclusive, consensus seeking rational deliberation tha...

Radical Democracy and the Internet provides a systematic and mutual interrogation of radical democratic theory and Internet practice. Contributors critically examine a range of radical democratic theories in relation to online communication, from deliberative to agonistic to autonomist Marxist, and explore how such communication may be advancing de...

The possibility of realizing a deliberative public sphere through the Internet has been of significant interest in Internet-democracy research. This deliberative public sphere, as the ideal for citizen participation in politics, involves rational debate between citizens over common problems leading to critically informed public opinion that can gui...

‘Democracy’ has become a universal signifier of political legitimacy. No major political programme or regime wants to be labelled undemocratic. However, the success of this signifier has far exceeded the success of actual democratic practice. Political systems throughout the world, including really existing democratic systems, are plagued by corrup...

Deliberative democratic public sphere theory has become increasingly popular in Internet-democracy research and commentary. In terms of informal civic practices, advocates of this theory see the Internet as a means for the expansion of citizen deliberation leading to the formation of rational public opinion through which official decision makers ca...

Deliberative democratic public sphere theory has become increasingly popular in Internet-democracy research and commentary. In terms of informal civic practices, advocates of this theory see the Internet as a means for the expansion of citizen deliberation leading to the formation of rational public opinion through which official decision makers ca...

Much communications research is in agreement about the failure of the mass media to adequately facilitate a public sphere of open and reflexive debate necessary for strong democratic culture. In contrast, the internet’s decentralised, two-way communication is seen by many commentators to be extending such debate. However, there is some ambivalence...

The public sphere conception continues to hold center stage in debates and visions of radical democratic society, and Jrgen Habermas work continues to be the most popular starting point for developing this conception. However, the Habermasian public sphere has also come under powerful and sustained criticism from many quarters. Here I concentrate u...

This article provides a general exploration of the argument that the Internet’s potential for extending strong democratic culture through critical communication is being undermined by a corporate colonization of cyberspace. The article investigates which sites are attracting the attention of participants seeking public content and interaction. The...

The vision of communication systems supporting public sphere(s) of discursive contestation has in recent times been embraced by many critical theorists as the ideal democratic role for the media. However, there has also been much pessimism about the realization of this vision. This pessimism extends from ‘big brother’ fears to hyperrealist scenario...

The Internet has enabled many individuals and groups to articulate and contest positions on a myriad of local, national, and international issues, thereby extending the public sphere(s) of critical communication at the heart of strong democracy. However, a number of commentators argue that this critical communication is likely to become ever more r...

Internet research has become a “field” in its own right in the social sciences, already boasting a number of peer-reviewed journals, a plethora of book titles, and an international association that draws hundreds of researchers from across the globe to its annual conference. This paper contributes to this burgeoning field at a meta-methodological l...

In recent years much has been said about the possibility of the Internet facilitating and extending the public sphere of informal rational-critical communication between private affairs and official decision making. However, the abundant speculation has not yet been matched by extensive empirical research. Ongoing theoretical debate about the valid...

Many contemporary political theorists agree that a public sphere of informal citizen deliberation is central to strong democracy. An increasing amount of empirical work is taking place that attempts to critically evaluate the extent to which everyday communication is advancing such a sphere. However, this work is hampered by poorly specified public...

In recent times much has been said about the possibility that the two-way, decentralized communications of cyberspace can provide sites of rational-critical discourse autonomous from state and economic interests and thus extending the public sphere at large. In this paper the extent to which the Internet does in fact enhance the public sphere is ev...

A number of Internet-democracy commentators have proposed that online communications may facilitate the Habermasian public sphere of communicative rationality. In contrast, Mark Poster and other cyber-postmodernists claim that this public sphere notion is “outmoded” in relation to online practices. They argue that cyberspace represents a “hyperreal...

Electronic democracy rhetoric has proliferated with the growth of the internet as a popular communications medium. This rhetoric is largely dominated by liberal individualist assumptions. Communitarianism has provided a resource for an alternative vision of electronic democracy. A third model, deliberative democracy, has recently been employed by e...

Over the last decade a lot has been said about the possibilities of the Internet enhancing the public sphere. The two-way, decentralized communications within cyberspace are seen as offering the basis by which to facilitate rational-critical discourse and hence develop public opinion that can hold state power accountable. However, this potential ha...

Three prominent 'camps' have emerged within Internet democracy rhetoric and practice, each drawing upon different models of democracy: communitarian, liberal individualist and deliberative. Much interest has been shown in the former two camps by researchers and policy makers. This paper turns to an examination of the possible realization of the thi...

The developing 'global' network of computers, popularly referred to as the net, has sparked enthusiastic claims that this new medium holds the potential to revolutionise democracy. Central to this rhetoric is the concept of cyberspace. This virtual meeting place, created by computer networks, enables public interaction and information sharing. It i...