Mass Media and new social media are one of the most significant indicators for deep transformations our societies are currently undergoing. This brings along serious problems how we can organize and stabilize our public life, especially in questions of democratic representation and self-government. It is for this reason the article first discusses critically the rhetoric talk of media as »fourth power in state« to consider then the function and role (mass and social) media morally should have in democratic civil societies. Thereby, a normative concept of public sphere (Öffentlichkeit) will be proposed that involves aspects of a professional ethics for both, producers and consumers of public opinion. Reconsidering therefore ecclesiology as an exemplary theory of public sphere can provide a paradigm for understanding constructively Christian communal life within a pluralistic media society.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik; 2014/1 Kommentare, Studien, Berichte, Dokumentationen, Diskussionen, Rezensionen, Bibliographie (2014)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik

Personen: Polke, Christian

Schlagwörter: Demokratie Macht Medien Öffentlichkeit