The Digital Media Blurring the Borders of Public Discussion

After the definition and characterization of the public discussion in media, this chapter takes up the problematic of demarcating the public discussion in the twenty-first century. I argue that, due to the contemporary media forms, the border between the public and the non-public has become even more vague than it was in the twentieth century. The distinction between the public and the non-public spheres of life is fine-grained: it depends on what type of media is used and the intentions of the content producer, instead of the physical space. At the same time, the lines demarcating different national public discussions are blurred as well, resulting in vaguely demarcated international publics without an international public sphere.