Media and the Public Sphere

Abstract The reflections on media and the public sphere draw heavily on the interpretation given by Habermas to the latter concept. The alternative models that have been developed, such as Nancy Fraser's counterpublics model, also build on the Habermasian approach, although the influence of a more Mouffean agonist approach is increasing. The field of communication and media studies uses the public sphere concept to make sense of the role of communication in noninstitutionalized politics characterized by three dimensions: the normative versus the neutralized‐descriptive, the media‐centric versus the society‐centric, and the structural(ist) versus the cultural(ist).