From coffee houses to chatrooms: Rethinking public sphere in a digital environment

Abstract

The contemporary era of digitalization has marked by significant developments, internet being one of them has revolutionized the entire world, by providing platforms to the citizens for articulation of their opinions and ideas on diverse social and state related issues, hence created a digital public sphere. Consequently, the paper aims to explore the role of digital platforms in efficient functioning of democracy with its potential to address societal issues and state affairs. It further provides a brief analysis of multiple digital public spheres operating in Pakistan by emphasizing upon their effectiveness and ineffectiveness. Since the paper incorporated the review of existing literature, it therefore presents comprehensive understanding of how digital public spheres (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, online newspapers and etc) operate and influence the political actions of the users, while addressing the societal problems. The paper also explicates the merits and demerits of digital public sphere, alongside offers a comprehensive understanding about the evolution of digital sphere. Lastly, the paper highlights limitations of the digital public sphere and guides the possible future directions on the usage of diverse digital public sphere in Pakistan.