Explaining the Digital Public with Habermas?

When compared to first generation Frankfurt School theorists like Adorno and Horkheimer, Jürgen Habermas has since shown a slightly bigger optimism regarding the future development of society. If adequate frame conditions of public discourse would apply, so his well-known thesis, then the better arguments would prevail, and society could develop in a humane and livable way. Just recently, Habermas updated his theory by a dedicated discussion of digital media. Here, he shows approval towards the widespread criticism of disinhibited online debates an unregulated digital sphere that impedes the development of a rational discourse. His suggested solution mostly consists in the implementations of regulative instruments like content-moderators. Doing so, the potential of the digital sphere to encourage emancipating social discourses could unfold.

The paper argues that Habermas recent publication repeats a problem of his earlier work on the public sphere. By sticking to his optimistic view on human rationality and distancing from various positions of the first-generation Frankfurt School scholars, he draws a very limited picture of which aspects influence the public discourse in positive and especially negative manners. More specifically, Habermas neglects the aspects of affect, the human emotional condition, and technology and media capitalism. All these spheres culminate in societal role of digital media to a high extent and without acknowledging them in the theoretical discussions, the rise of non-rational developments in society cannot be explained sufficiently. The paper suggests to open Habermas’ theory to newer theoretical insights from politically and psychological orientated media theory. This will allow to paint a wider picture of the relation between digital media, the public sphere their influence on the development of society.