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New Media & Society
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Rethinking the fragmentation of the cyberpublic: from consensus to contestation

Lincoln Dahlberg

University of Queensland, Australia, l.dahlberg{at}uq.edu.au

Recently there has been some debate between deliberative democrats about whether the internet is leading to the fragmentation of communication into `like-minded' groups.This article is concerned with what is held in common by both sides of the debate: a public sphere model that aims for all-inclusive, consensus seeking rational deliberation that eliminates inter-group `polarizing' politics. It argues that this understanding of deliberative democracy fails to adequately consider the asymmetries of power through which deliberation and consensus are achieved, the inter-subjective basis of meaning, the centrality of respect for difference in democracy, and the democratic role of `like-minded' deliberative groups.The deliberative public sphere must be rethought to account more fully for these four aspects. The article draws on post-Marxist discourse theory and reconceptualizes the public sphere as a space constituted through discursive contestation.Taking this radicalized norm, it considers what research is needed to understand the democratic implications of the formation of `like-minded' groups online.

Key Words: deliberative democracy • fragmentation • internet • public sphere • radical democracy

New Media & Society, Vol. 9, No. 5, 827-847 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1461444807081228
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