Central theme - the way in which human interaction is distorted

Distortion arise when:

- Facts of a situation are hidden from some or all

of the participants

- Rules prohibit people from fully participating in

the decision-making process.

Communicative action

A "communicatively achieved agreement" has a rational basis

Social norms arrived at through free rational discussion in which the consequences of the norm are explored primarily with regard to its universalisability

"Ideal speech situation" - a universal rationality in which everybody participates equally, a situation in which communication is not distorted.

H. cites period of early capitalism as approaching "Ideal speech situation"

18th century - discussion in literary public sphere took on a political dimension - considered contemporary affairs and state policy in clubs, salons, coffee-houses (of and growing free press

Bourgeoisie create network within society (newspapers, debating societies, publishing houses, libraries, universities, museums etc) to shape/express new political force: public opinion.

The public sphere?:

Where citizens can confer with the guarantee of freedom of assembly, association and

to express and publish their opinions

Debate proceeds in accordance with standards of critical reason

These conditions of argument that lend public opinion its legitimising force; public opinion then is distinguished from mere opinion

Key characteristics:

1) Independent of Church and State power

2) In principle open to all

3) Distinct from the private interests

H. description of 18^th C UK idealised. Nonetheless argues that:

Public sphere destroyed by the development of the capitalist economy

Media commercialisation excluded political questions from large areas of the public sphere

Monopoly capitalism meant:

i) Uneven distribution of wealth

ii) Rising entry costs to public sphere and thus to

iii) Unequal access to/control over public sphere.

Increasing advertising/public relations - represent (attempt) at manipulation by private or state interests of flow of public information

Nature of "publicity" altered - formerly meant openness, affairs of state exposed to public scrutiny

Modern conception of publicity - that which attracts attention for the purposes of journalism, advertising and politics.

As the welfare state expanded - state and private concerns share same interests

Space between civil society and the State (public sphere) closed

Leads to problems of legitimation

High epoch of the public sphere - all public decisions available for public discussion: Thus exercise of the power of the state was legitimate

Growing role of the 'technocratic consciousness'

"It is commonplace to assert that public communication lies at the heart of the democratic process; that citizens require, if their equal access to the vote is to have any substantive meaning, equal access also to sources of information and equal opportunities to participate in the debates from which political decisions rightly flow.... it follows that changes in media structure and media policy… are properly political questions"

Capitalism and communication, Nicholas Garnham

Liberal model of a free market press assumes either:

i) market will provide appropriate institutions and processes of public communications to support a democratic policy or

ii) only the market can ensure the necessary freedom from State control and coercion.

Arguably however - market forces have produced:

- oligopoly control and

- depoliticisation of content

Thus far from the liberal idea of a free-market place of ideas

"Within the political realm the individual is defined as a citizen exercising public rights of debate, voting, etc., within a communally agreed structure of rules and towards communally defined ends. The value system is essentially social and the legitimate end of social action is the public good.

Within the economic realm on the other hand the individual is defined as a producer and consumer exercising private rights through purchasing power on the market in pursuit of private interests, his or her actions being co-ordinated by the invisible hand of the market."

An irreconcilable difference between the realms of the political and the economic?

Mass media operate in both realms simultaneously

Dual existence of media as a commercial and political entities not just important for questions of ownership and control.

Also a question of the value system and set of social relations within which the commercial media must operate and implicitly reinforce.

Public communication is transformed into the politics of consumerism