On the Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere

My book *Filtermacht: On the Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere*, published in 2024, is now available via Open Access. An excerpt from the preface:

“What used to be marketplaces and later newspapers are now increasingly becoming the digital channels of the major platforms. In their respective eras, marketplaces, newspapers, and digital platforms have served as the central venues for discursive exchange among citizens regarding the proper organization of the political community. They are places for the exchange of arguments and ideas, of views and convictions; they are also places for group formation and debate. Throughout history, revolutions in mass media—the printing press, electronic media, and digitization—have each created new forms of exchange for increasingly larger and more complex communities. The “public sphere” refers to the space in which this argumentative debate takes place. How this takes place depends to a decisive extent on the media conditions: in the marketplace, in newspapers, and on digital platforms, debates unfold in different ways; there are different requirements for access; and there are different rules governing who can speak about what, and who can hear it and how. The subject of this thesis is the conceptualization of the paradigmatic shift in the political public sphere in the wake of the digital transformation.”

Read more: The Power of Filters