Despite the enormous technological and social (especially economic) changes in the era of globalisation, many 'old' assumptions about the public, public opinion and the public sphere remain in force and, despite the latest technological developments in communication, many 'old' contradictions remain unresolved. The Internet has not succeeded in bringing into play the fundamental normative feature of public media - the conversion of particularistic interests into a common interest by confronting the rulers and the ruled, and mediating between them - not because of its technological nature, but because of its social nature. More than new interpretations of the (transnational) public sphere and public opinion, efforts are needed to change them in a direction that would enable the manifestation of publicity in its original 'three-dimensional design' as a personal right to communicate in public, surveillance of the public over government (governance), and mediation between the state and civil society.
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