The European Public Sphere: Myth, Reality or Aspiration?

Abstract

The discussion about the public sphere only began to have significant relevance within the setting of the European Union in the middle of the 1990s when a growing degree of attention was directed towards European integration and the role of national and transnational media in providing thrust for it. Since then, the notion of the public sphere has been seen as a central feature of European democracies, shaping the coherence of political systems and decisionmaking processes. There has also been a tendency in the literature to perceive the European public sphere (EPS) as having positive effects on the EU by endowing it with legitimacy and providing a space where its institutions and leaders can be made more transparent and accountable.What is disputed throughout this scholarship is the possibility of creating an overarching European public sphere that would act as a transnational discursive space uniting various communication fluxes and actors from all strata of society. However, the answers provided by scholars for this puzzle are at most ambiguous or undecided and seem to be torn between viewing the EPS as aspiration, myth or reality.The discussion regarding the public sphere only began to have significant relevance within the setting of the European Union in the middle of the 1990s when a growing degree of attention was directed towards European integration and the role of national and transnational media in providing thrust for it (Curran Van de Steeg, 2002). Since then, the notion of the public sphere has been seen as a central feature of European democracies, shaping the coherence of political systems and decision-making processes. Within the transnational space fostered by the European Union, scholarspolitical theorists, sociologists and political scientists -have argued that the emergence or presence of a coherent and unified public sphere would create various avenues through which citizens could have their voices heard by the Union's decision makers. This aspiration has been based on the assumption that equal and open access to public debate fostered by a European public sphere (EPS) could enhance the EU's transnational democracy and further its collective identity formation processes. Thus, contestation through public debate within the EPS could compel the political authority to explain and justify its actions and policies towards the public.