Colloquium Presentation Part 7: The Public Sphere: The Sway of Public Relations

“Whereas at one time publicness was intended to subject persons or things to the public use of reason and to make political decisions susceptible to revision before the tribunal of public opinion, today it has often enough already been enlisted in the aid of the secret policies of interest groups; in the form of ‘publicity’ it now acquires public prestige for persons or things and renders them capable of acclamation in a climate of nonpublic opinion. The term ‘public relations’ itself indicated how a public sphere that formerly emerged from the structure of society must now be produced circumstantially on a case-by-case basis” (Habermas).