Rhetoric and Writing in the Public Sphere: An Introduction/The Evolution of the Public Sphere

The Evolution of the Public Sphere in Europe

With the rise of mercantilism and the emergence of a new bourgeois merchant class, there was a redefined relationship between those who ruled and those who were being ruled. These changes contributed to the transition from a feudal system into a state. As a result, the public sphere began to emerge in society; it acted as the connecting link between the intimate sphere of the family and the authority of the state.

In the beginning, the feudal system was a system that placed great emphasis on royal power. The king not only represented the public, but he was the public. Under his sovereign control, there were no negotiations or any form of public discussions. The ruling aristocracy also blurred with the idea of divine authority, and therefore public religion influenced private life.

However, this began to change when a new economic system was introduced: mercantilism. This new economic system gave rise to small and specialized trade which promoted a group of people called merchants. Forming trades and new businesses, the merchants became less dependent on the feudal lord and the aristocrats. Eventually, the new economic system supported a new class called the bourgeois, or merchant/middle class. The bourgeois created a new space for economic discussions, which was the basis of the public sphere. At these discussions, the bourgeois could publicly voice and protect their rights and interests.

The Stages of the Public Sphere

In the process of developing the public sphere, there are three stages: the mercantile stage, the administrative stage, and the public stage. The mercantile stage deals with more internal and specific information. It is a narrow and exclusive public sphere that is limited to only a few elites. Its technical nature emphasizes analysis before action. As for the administrative stage, it is still conducted in the private realm, and its goal is to seek protections for its members from the public authority. Compared to the mercantile stage, it is more inclusive and less narrow. It has a practical purpose and encourages social interactions. However, the public stage is the most inclusive and broad public sphere. It provides both general and specific information to all people. This stage recognizes societal problems and uses the public sphere as a source of connection, information, opinion, and decision for all people. This is the most ideal public sphere because it is open to discourse among all people.

Private vs. Public spheres

As Craig Calhoun has emphasized, the public sphere is greatly dependent upon the quality of discourse and the quantity of participation. Unlike the private sphere, the public sphere consists of a wide range of participants within a society that can engage in critical and rational discourse. It is a platform for societal integration; it sets oppositions and issues between the state and society. Also, the public sphere does not have the tendency to be uniform and promote only one particular interest or idea like the private sphere. Instead, the public sphere is open to all opinions and interest groups. It is not static and is, therefore, often accepting of changes. Hence, the differences and the inequalities within a society become the basis for discussion and action. This open communication among people is the initial stage of a public sphere.

The press, in print and other mediums like electronic sources, developed in three stages:

1. The first stage consists primarily of a small group of people. Mostly, the merchants and big traders had a voice. The elite are really the only ones who participate in the public domain.
2. The second stage becomes more political. The press is trying to educate/unite the public on policy, etc. The press is more of a puppet of the public leaders and is used to inform the public of laws and policies that the pubic is to support and follow.
3. The third stage is where the open and genuine public sphere emerges. The press must serve the society that is in a state of discourse and debate. This is the stage where the public is finally allowed to communicate its worries and opinions to the state authority, using the press as the means to give voice to their ideas.

The Evolution of Print Media

1730s-1790s (Early)

• no visual components
• news got around by word of mouth, not in print form
• there was a limited circulation of printed material
• it was more of an alert and message system
• white male/wealthy landowners were the target and the target group
• the print was incredibly small to fit in as much information as possible
• hand-type setting, meaning very labor intensive to produce
• shared by subscribers with neighbors, etc.

1790s-1890s (19th-Century Newspapers)

• improved circulation
• emergence of local news
• still trying to fit a lot of information onto one page
• introduction of foreign affairs
• ranged in price from 1 cent to 2 cents
• not divided into headline sections
• uniformity and format begins to emerge
• illustration in woodcuts
• the beginning of stock quotes
• advertising develops

1890s-1950s (Early 20th Century)

• still not completely uniform—the text is still somewhat scrunched
• WWII made huge headlines with many pictures
• no clear division of sections, although categorization of topics emerges
• no uniform text sizes (spaced between characters and lines varied)
• starts to print the weather forecast
• stock quotes and advertising become the norm

1950s to the present

• visual aids widely used
• text/stories broken up into many sections
• more focus on human interest stories (and births/obituaries)
• the stories are opinions/not all based on the facts
• ads and coupons
• eye-catching headlines
• frequent political focus
• space-filling photos
• text fragmented with "on page…"
• appealing to different readers (varied focus: the economy, lifestyle, political section)

The Public Sphere in Public Spaces

• Coffeehouses in England
• Salons in France
• Tischgesellschaften in Germany

Today (Diverse Forms of Media in the Public Sphere)

• Gossip magazines (Us Weekly, Star, People)
• Fashion magazines (Glamour, Marie Claire)
• Fitness magazines (Self, Men’s Fitness)
• Specialized—e.g., automotive, etc.
• Academic journals
• Informative/Political undertone magazines (TIME, Newsweek)
• Shopping catalogs
• Blogs
• News shows
• Talk Shows
• 24-Hour News Programs
• Online News Programs
• Film
• Speculative nonfiction (e.g., James Frey)
• Access to anything at your fingertips (the internet)

The political functions of the emerging public sphere first started in Europe as a reaction to the ruling aristocracy, which attempted to squelch public opinion. Europe definitely had a hierarchy as the idea of press and public sphere begins to develop. In literature, art, and culture, politics were generally avoided. The intellectual, the educated, and the literate formed the foundation of the public sphere.

The US had no ruling aristocracy—a system obviously rejected by the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution. There was no belief in divine authority and religion was and is considered a private matter. There emerged a foundation for the public sphere with farmer, doctor, scholar, and laborer being the basis. There was little attention to class.

However, in both Europe and the US, you could only participate if you were a free laborer. This would exclude women, slaves, and indentured servants.

The United States developed its public sphere quite differently than Europe did, at least according to philosopher and author of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Jürgen Habermas. No ruling aristocracy existed in the United States. We decided to make a democracy. In order to establish that democracy, many voices were needed to speak and run the nation. So we had the Founding Fathers who debated with each other over the best path. In England as previously mentioned, only the ruling class spoke.

World religions have many times founded the governments of countries. The United States first non-native inhabitants were Protestant. Protestants do not have a religious hierarchy. Most of the other Christian religions do have hierarchies—the Pope, Bishop, Cardinal. The Protestants founded the United States and therefore did not have a hierarchy system.

The United States also had a different motto than Europe. We were founded by the people for the people. The US was not created to protect anyone or make money; it was founded to be a haven for people, where they could be free. For people to enjoy this freedom, the citizens had to talk. What did they want out of their freedom? What types of laws should everyone follow? The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that no one felt belittled or silenced.

This goal of universal happiness needed the average citizen’s opinions in order to work. The average citizen spoke up and said what they felt. They talked amongst each other and developed a government that would allow for the free expression of opinion.

People also needed to talk more because they needed to establish systems in the US. Here, unlike England, no roads yet existed. No towns or methods of transportation were in place. The environment was completely wild. So people had to discuss how to promote transportation and trade and how to develop the land. People needed to communicate effectively to be able to survive.

In the US you didn’t have to be educated to participate in discussion. Illiterate people could be a part of the public sphere. The only people who could not participate in the public sphere were women, blacks, and indentured servants. That did not really change until the mid 1900’s.

From the beginning of the US until the mid 1900’s, the focus of public discussion was on the survival system, transportation, politics, trade, war. During the fifties and sixties, discussion focused on letting everyone into the public sphere. The civil rights movement and women’s liberation occurred. Also Vietnam happened. But after these tumultuous decades, things settled down a bit. People began to become more focused on entertainment. These days, people discuss their favorite TV shows and celebrities with each other.

Another view of the development of the US public sphere comes from Burton Bledstein. He wrote a book called The Culture of Professionalism. In this book, Bledstein discusses America's "professional" culture. The US culture developed “rigid barriers” that did not exist in Europe.

In America, your future was not planned out. People that were peasants in Europe could be business tycoons in the US. That meant that young men could determine what they wanted to do in life. It gave them choices. The US began to develop universities to train people to be successful. The universities taught students the discipline to achieve their goals. However, Bernstein notes that this also led to a decrease in the degree of creativity people had. Universities led to people trusting an authority and lowering their own notions of themselves. Students are taught that they are not correct. The teacher is correct. Because of this, America developed at a quick pace. People began to work for a majority of the day so that they could accomplish more. Life in America moved at a very fast pace. But people were also reaping the benefits. Some were striking it rich. And that became the American Dream. Every worker in America strives to achieve the American Dream. Wealth became the ultimate goal of the Victorians. The middle class soon came to dominate American culture.

The pace that America set for itself led to psychological issues. People began to be nervous and frustrated. They would get tired and violent. By trying so diligently to be free, people realized their own limitations. They began to find that they could not accomplish everything. This was especially true for women. They were confined to being housewives and caring for the children.

Victorians also developed the difference between public and private places. They developed what should be considered private and what could occur in public spaces. Before this time, private was a negative word. Now it is mainstream. Locks and alarms became normal, as did personal space.

Victorians not only divided up private and personal space, they categorized almost everything and everyone. Every space came to have a purpose—a breakfast nook, a dining room, a dressing room. People also began to associate certain meals with certain times of the day. People in America began to only eat cereal, eggs, and other “breakfast” foods at breakfast time. Before, there was no distinction between foods. You could eat mashed potatoes any time of the day. Breakfast also began to be associated with being clean and getting a fresh start to the day.

In Victorian society, everyone had to follow these new rules of culture to be considered “in.” As a result of the desire to fit in, magazines and other cultural instruction manuals began to be published. These taught the reader how to fit in just as today’s magazines do.

Another cultural aspect that began to appear was the use of space to determine power. The more space you took up, the more power you had. Houses began to sprawl bigger and bigger. Railroad cars were built so that people had more personal space, if they could afford to pay for it. At this time, the rich, poor, and middle class became separated.