The Internet And The Public Sphere

Abstract

Habermas (1989) proposes a ‘public sphere’, a setting where people talk freely on the public issues. In his early works, Habermas was rather pessimistic about the provision of the public sphere; however, soon after the introduction of the Internet as an ultimately decentralized medium, in his later work, Habermas (1996) seems more optimistic about the Internet as the provider of the ‘public sphere’. The Internet which is particularly popular among the young people, not only provides a medium that is cheap and easily accessible but also provides incredible amount of information on the topic of almost any interest and means for communication. It also contributes to the democratic discussions in the society. The Internet provides a medium according to which neither gender, nor age or race is important. Since it does not belong to anybody, it provides a public sphere in which political communication can be held democratically. This paper sets out to explore whether, despite the wide of use of the Internet, tertiary students are aware of the opportunities for democratic communication it provides. The present study aims at exploring the attitudes of the students studying in the Faculties of Engineering and Communication and Media Studies of the Eastern Mediterranean University in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, in the 2003-2004 academic year, to the Internet as the provider of information, a medium for expressing opinions and conversation on the public issues. Data is collected through a questionnaire comprising both structured questions and questions designed according to the five-point Likert scale. The results suggest that, the attitudes of the students studying both hard and soicial sciences do not show significant difference stressing the commonality of the Internet for all the academicians.