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Peter Dahlgren, “Mediating Democracy”

Summary

The public sphere—an essential component of democracy—is challenged by the commercial nature of media, its representations, the social structures that define it, and our own sociocultural interactions.

Questions

  1. How is democracy both and separately defined as a form of consumerism and as a utopian ideal?
  2. Why is the public sphere important for democracy?
  3. How was the public sphere constituted at the dawn of the enlightenment in the 18th century?
  4. How did industrialization and mass culture change the participants of the public sphere? How did it lead to a refedualization?
  5. Explain each of the four dimensions of the public sphere, according to Dahlgren?