Deakin University ACC100 Essay: Public Sphere and Activism

This essay delves into the concept of the public sphere and its critical relationship with social movements and activism. It begins by defining the public sphere as a domain of social life where individuals can freely address social problems, fostering political action and public debate. The essay then explores the application of the public sphere within social movements and activism, referencing Habermas's theory, which positions social movements as key actors and critical rational speakers. The essay examines the role of social media as a powerful platform for enhancing the public sphere, providing opportunities for grassroots communication and real-time interaction. It discusses various social media platforms that enable many-to-many communication, thereby enhancing opportunities for grassroots communication. The essay also examines the impact of digital technologies on the public sphere, including how debates are often shaped by these technologies. It concludes by emphasizing the public sphere's significant effect on social movements and activism, promoting the formation of public opinion and encouraging collective action. Throughout the essay, the author provides examples, such as the India Against Corruption movement, to illustrate the concepts discussed.

Running head: PUBLIC SPHERE
PUBLIC SPHERE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PUBLIC SPHERE
Introduction
The public sphere is a domain of social life. In this particular case, every person comes
under one umbrella to freely detect some social problems (Shen et al. 2020). It can increase some
political action. This type of discussion is called public debate. It can be defined as the
expression of views. Social media is a very powerful platform for enhancing the public sphere.
The public sphere can be observed as a theater in modern societies.
In this particular essay, the relation between the social movement and activism and the
Public sphere is discussed elaborately (Lin 2020). It is elaborated with the help of some
examples related to those topics.
Application of the Public Sphere in Social movement and activism
According to the theory of Habermas of the public sphere, social movements are treated
as the core actors or activists. They are performing the roles of critical rational speakers. It can
treat as a challenge or state. The scholarship on the social movement on the deliberative
democracy is remaining intact in a separate place. Deliberation of studies is more empirically
implemented (O'Connor 2020). Young’s fictive dialogue indicates the differences between the
deliberative democrat as well as the activist (2001). It says that these are classified either to
welcome contentious politics or consensus politics. The deliberative democrat is totally ready to
remove as contributions as “not much deliberative”. Some particular deliberative democrats must
welcome the social movements. The researchers of the social movement are trying to understand
the effects on a particular culture. At some time, the social movement researchers are getting
some breakthrough for the deliberation studies for elaborating deliberation update.
As per Bishop (2020), online social activism plays a vital role in the present scenario. It
provides a huge amount of contribution to the public sphere (O’Brien 2020). It is not the first
time people have amazed how the political, as well as social bodies, are operating as a whole.
The American poet Walt Whitman said that the viewer of any social reality was automatically
related to all other social points. Regarding the public sphere, Whitman said, “I sing the body
electric”.

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According to the Global Media Journal, the social media highlights for several alternative
problems that can be raised, efficiently debated as well as framed. It is totally connected with the
citizens of any countries and they may enjoy the real-time interaction among many participants.
Social media platforms allow social activists to perform many-to-many communication. There
are many social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to enhance the
opportunities for grassroots communication. The democratic probabilities of technological
advancements are totally related to the Web 2.0 tool (Navarroa nd Coromina 2020). The initial
optimism is related to a public sphere that was replaced with the help of some doubts as well as
some confusion. The doubt is totally related to whether this model was perfect for democratic
development in a networked society. According to Tornario (2005), the social movement is
related to the dissatisfaction of the status quo of the administration of Brazil. It is totally related
to efficiency as well as performance. It is performed with the help of some rationalization of the
assignment and it is guided by the maximization of the private interest.
Cancado, Pereria and Tenorio (2013, p-87) mentions that social movement, as well as
activism, is a dialectical procedure related to the public sphere. It is totally related to the well-
understood interest (Maulana 2020). In the work of various authors, it is possible to observe most
of the theoretical categories of social activism. They also said that social management and
activism increases as the public sphere increases. The public sphere contains the locus as well as
an essential condition. It is used to develop social movement and activism. There are several
authors that make references for the public sphere in social movement and activism. It is a very
important category of the public sphere. Other authors make references for the public sphere of
social movement and activism.
Social movements aim to discourse the wider arenas and as such simultaneous actors for
the civil society (Magdahl and Jordhus-Lier 2020). Modern public spheres are also included as
an institutionalized component or strong publics. Social movements perform the active
citizenship where subject transforms into the citizens through claims for justice and political
struggle. Social movement may be very significant in that particular field.
According to LO’Connor (2020), social media is integrated with various movements of
social justice and it is treated as the grassroots of activism. The study of social activism has
increased in a rapid manner. Every day, a person becomes active in social as well as the political

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environment with the help of social media. The caste system enhances the socio-economic
segregation and people protest against this with the help of social media. It helps to stop the
mobile nature inside the class.
The public sphere makes women activism a successful one (Kim and Lim 2020). It has
some set of values with the help of which a woman can become an activist. It is an important part
of public sphere media and other forums in the public opinion. As per Frasher (1997), an
excellent scholar has raised the civil society and the public sphere could make it as male. With
the help of social media, the movements of women are expanded largely. It is democratized in
the twentieth century.
The public sphere is totally connected to the single large society and it can be treated as a
nation-state (Jones 2020). It enhances the process of globalisation. It is also responsible for
emerging a global state and it is the most obvious reason for creating the debate. It also performs
some associated activities and it is also used for some collected action that is taking place. It also
initiates a new literature for the society.
Some special problems are aroused due to the modifying nature of the public sphere and
it also says the contribution of women regarding this matter. It involves some transitional public
sphere (Carnac 2020). It is performed with the help of some examination of some countries. The
countries are related to Morocco, Algeria and Tanzania.
Digital technologies are influencing the public sphere. Most of the debates are
performing is based on digital technologies with the help of the harmony of the corporate media.
The culture also influences the global audiences of the public sphere. In this particular case, a
school Frankfruit is performed one experiment. It is called cultural parallelism. It is totally
related to the internal flow of communication as the manifestation of the public sphere which
affects social activism. According to the Cultural Imparalleism, the main media is maintaining
some impartial power over political as well as cultural discourse. The involvement of social
media provides a piece of vast information to the public which may lead to social activism. As
per Henry Jenkins (2006), the involvement of digital media empowers a person to perform the
public sphere and involve himself or herself in the area of social activism. Digital engagement in
the media is also executed by some economic interests. It may hamper the quality of online

4PUBLIC SPHERE
interactions among various persons (Barron 2020). In the case of some traditional public sphere,
the latest type of public deliberation is responsible for technical infrastructures. In the latest
research performed by some scientists, photography and television are the two only platforms for
performing the communication. At that time, the public sphere was performed with the help of
these communication devices.
As per Dr Sujata Mukherjee, social media has a huge influence on the public sphere
which enhances social movements and activism. The public sphere affects some offline politics
are continued. It leads to the resonance of the physical occupation. The most important question
is that how media matters and how some of the particular media tools are affecting social
activism (Barnard and Mourad 2020). Previously it is working on global justice. In this case, it is
only pointed out the formation of the networks for the social movement and it is also called the
new social movements. With the help of various websites and other digital tools, global justice
can be enhanced. It is more efficiently related to social activism. It has the ability to relate the
geographical spaces without the requirement of vertical hierarchy.
Habermas's elaborated on the need for universal communicative action in case of social
movements. He recommended that speakers, as well as listeners, have the ability to reach an
agreement. This type of communication can perform very efficiently. It can be treated as an ideal
speech of situation (Baker et al. 2020). According to Habermas, it provides an idea that the truth
inside the communication has an integral part of the elements for providing the democracy of the
public sphere. It gives various branches of social movements. It is an idea that develops his
concept of social movements in a hegemonic struggle. An example can be provided related to
this concept. India Against Corruption is an anti-corruption movement of the country of India. It
helps to protest against corruption in 2011 and 2012. The main point of corruption was the
introduction of Jan Lokpal Bill. It helped the public to perform a social movement in India. It got
a huge amount of success.
Conclusion
The public sphere is treated as a domain in today’s social life. With the help of this,
public opinion can be formed. It helps to perform the social movement as well as activism. It
helps to engage a large number of individuals in some social matters and thus formed the social

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movement. Social movement helps to bring people towards a common goal. It is used to
maintain some core foundation of society. In the end, can be said that the public has a huge effect
on social movement and activism.

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