The virtual sphere

By Zizi Papacharissi. New Media & Society, 2002

1,093 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The internet and its surrounding technologies hold the promise of reviving the public sphere; however, several aspects of these new technologies simultaneously curtail and augment that potential. First, the data storage and retrieval capabilities of internet-based technologies infuse political discussion with information otherwise unavailable. At the same time, information access inequalities and new media literacy compromise the representativeness of the virtual sphere. Second, internet-based technologies enable discussion between people on far sides of the globe, but also frequently fragmentize political discourse. Third, given the patterns of global capitalism, it is possible that internet-based technologies will adapt themselves to the current political culture, rather than create a new one. The internet and related technologies have created a new public space for politically oriented conversation; whether this public space transcends to a public sphere is not up to the technology itself.

Subfields: Communication

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d299601f255a1f73d050ed559a0df26228865d94

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Citations in the corpus

Self-Governance Through Group Discussion in Wikipedia (2011, background): “…have examined democracy online, including studies that assert that CMC has the potential to promote civility and democratic discussion (Papacharissi, 2004; Weiksner, 2005), revive the public sphere (Papacharissi, 2002), and encourage civic participation and engagement (Bucy & Gregson, 2001).”
Rethinking the fragmentation of the cyberpublic: from consensus to contestation (2007, background): “In contrast, the internet has been seen as offering citizens the opportunity to encounter and engage with a huge diversity of positions, thus extending the public sphere (Blumler and Gurevitch, 2001; Gimmler, 2001; Kellner, 2004; Papacharissi, 2002).”
Expressive Versus Consumptive Blog Use: Implications for Interpersonal Discussion and Political Participation (2013, background): “It is not different with online news media, including blogs; scholars have found that online news sources also have a positive effect on participation (e.g., Brundidge et al., in press; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2009; Lawrence et al., 2010; Papacharissi, 2002; Shah et al., 2005), and it has been argued ”
Every tweet counts? How sentiment analysis of social media can improve our knowledge of citizens’ political preferences with an application to Italy and France (2013, background): “…sources of direct democracy that may contribute to increased responsiveness and accountability in real-world politics (De Zúñiga et al., 2009; Papacharissi, 2002), others have proposed diverging views strongly criticizing this same idea (Alvarez and Hall, 2011; Hindman, 2009; Larsson and…”
The Nasty Effect: Online Incivility and Risk Perceptions of Emerging Technologies (2014, background): “Social reprimands such as nonverbal communication and isolation can curb incivility in face-toface discussion, but the Internet may foster uncivil discussion because of its lack of offline, in-person consequences (Dutton, 1996; Hill & Hughes, 1998; Papacharissi, 2002).”
Birds of a Caste - How Caste Hierarchies Manifest in Retweet Behavior of Indian Politicians (2020, background): “The expectation was that access to online discursive spaces would create new spaces for exchange and an improved platform for political participation [69].”
News Sharing in Social Media: A Review of Current Research on News Sharing Users, Content, and Networks (2015, background): “On one side of the spectrum, we find the almost inevitable “utopian rhetoric that surrounds new media technologies” (Papacharissi, 2002, p. 9), praising the ability of news sharing to democratize the news flow and to facilitate political participation or civic engagement.”
The Effects of Digital Media on Political Knowledge and Participation in Election Campaigns (2014, background): “…digital media will have positive and potentially strong effects on political participation and knowledge (Hendricks & Denton, 2010; Norris, 2001; Papacharissi, 2002), while others have seen them as predominantly entertainment-oriented and argued that factors other than technology are more…”