The Networked Public Sphere

In chapter 7, Benker suggests that the Internet has made great changes to the public sphere. Therefore, an audience is no just an audience; they have the capacity to communicate and make their own voices public.

A basic tool of networked communication that Benker mentions is the blog. It not only allows users to communicate between one another, but it also functions as a growing cultural practice. When blogs first emerged on the Web, they were merely public "journals" that people used to document everyday happenings. As its popularity began to grow, its social, cultural, and political impacts increased. The current state of blogs is one that has a multitude of purposes.

A reason for its success is mainly due to its simplicity. Blogs are easy to set up and use. They can also be edited from any computer so long as it has access to the Internet. One aspect that separates blogs from regular webpages is that they "enable individuals to write to their Web pages in journalism time—that is, hourly, daily, weekly—whereas Web page culture that preceded it tended to be slower moving" (217).

In addition, the fact that readers of a blog have the ability to comment on the blogger's post creates a dynamic exchange of information between writer and audience. Despite the fact that the blogger has the power to filter what is being posted, it is important to note that not all do so. As a result, the advent of blogging technology has helped to form a complex network of information flow and to change the traditional structure in which news is communicated.