American Counter Publics Gebunden

The public sphere-an idea with deep roots in the European enlightenment-has always been a contested concept in American culture and society. American intellectuals artists politicians and activists have stressed the non-unitary diversified and oppositional dynamics of all things public. From the early days of the American republic competing interest groups and commercial mass media (first newspapers novels and the theater then radio television and the internet) have worked to pluralize public speech and public action-and ultimately the notion of publicness itself.This essay collecti on explores the public sphere in North America as a multi-agential commercially embattled highly mediated and ultimately trans-nationalized aggregate of publics and counterpublics. The contributors present innovative theoretical and historical assessments of American counter publics across an array of fields including social activism political communication literary discourse andcontemporary mass media.