Life beyond the Public Sphere: Towards a Networked Model for Political Deliberation

Abstract

As the odds for a change of government in the Australian elections in late 2007 improve, there is increased conflict not only between the two sides of federal politics, but also between the mainstream press (which in recent years had maintained a largely supportive stance towards the government) and citizen journalists and news bloggers (many of whom have long held sharply critical views). The increasingly visible disconnect between the electorate and many political journalists points to wider observations about the decline of the mass-mediated public sphere, and the emergence of a variety of networked issue publics, possibly acting as public spherules in their own right and interacting with one another in complex patterns of exchange. This article explores the implications of this transformation for citizen engagement in politics and policy development, and applies observations from the analysis of produsage, or user-led content creation, to the democratic process.