From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics: Rethinking Contemporary Public Communication Spaces (DMRCSS26)

Snurb — Sunday 8 February 2026 10:40
Politics | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | Social Media | Social Media Network Mapping | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | DMRCSS 2026 |

DMRC Summer School 2026

From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics: Rethinking Contemporary Public Communication Spaces

Axel Bruns

Presentation Slides

Abstract

'The' public sphere is now irretrievably fractured into a multiplicity of online and offline, larger and smaller, more or less public spaces that frequently (and often serendipitously) overlap and intersect with one another. This diverse array of what have been described variously as public spheres, public spherules, platform publics, issue publics, or personal publics nonetheless serves many of the same functions that were postulated for the public sphere itself. However, while the communicative structures, functions, and dynamics of many such spaces have been studied in isolation, we still lack a more comprehensive model that connects such case studies in pursuit of an overarching perspective. This talk identifies the crucial building blocks that help us conceptualise and investigate how the network of such spaces is structured, and in turn structures our everyday experience of public communication.

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