This article presents a comparison between two models of publicness (one based on a type of television firmly anchored in the center, another depending on media that blur all distinctions between centers and peripheries) and asks what sort of sharedness do these two models allow? The article also explores the notion of “monstration.” Through what sorts of displays do contending media call on public attention? Can one speak of “acts of showing” the way one speaks of speech acts? What is the impact of such acts on a sociology of collective attention? Third, the article examines the coexistence between television of the center and new digital media. Is their relation agonistic or, paradoxically, cooperative? The present situation may echo many earlier cases in which old media learned to coexist with new media by starting unexpected dialogues and practicing a division of labor. Today’s situation might be a (reluctant) partnership in a multitiered public sphere.

Should viewers of television be considered as audiences or publics? The different meanings of these two terms are discussed in relation to audience and reception studies on the one hand, and work on fan cultures, ceremonial television and migrant communities on the other. A number of theoretical positions are reviewed and it is argued that, in the end, television may produce `pretend publics' and `publics for a day', but that at best its viewers constitute an `almost' public.

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