The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada
A prerequisite for a healthy, sustainable democracy is an informed citizenry that participates in the democratic process (see Habermas, 1989:49). In recent years much discourse on the media and democracy correlation has focused on the potential role of the Internet in facilitating political communi...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Johannesburg
2022-10-01
|
| Series: | Communicare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1705 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | A prerequisite for a healthy, sustainable democracy is an informed citizenry that participates in
the democratic process (see Habermas, 1989:49). In recent years much discourse on the media
and democracy correlation has focused on the potential role of the Internet in facilitating political
communication by establishing a virtual public sphere.
This article investigates the extent to which the South African (IEC) and Canadian electoral
commissions’ websites have succeeded in establishing a virtual public sphere. The Elections
Canada web site (representing an established democracy) has succeeded better at resembling
some of the normative principles of the public sphere theory than has the IEC.
|
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0259-0069 2957-7950 |