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...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Johannesburg
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Communicare |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1705 |
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| _version_ | 1832593813404647424 |
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| author | Hannelie Otto Lynnette Fourie Johannes Froneman |
| author_facet | Hannelie Otto Lynnette Fourie Johannes Froneman |
| author_sort | Hannelie Otto |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
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.
|
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f95ef21e577043f6801f72274cd28586 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0259-0069 2957-7950 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | University of Johannesburg |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communicare |
| spelling | doaj-art-f95ef21e577043f6801f72274cd285862025-01-20T08:52:57ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0126110.36615/jcsa.v26i1.1705The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections CanadaHannelie Otto0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4470-5577Lynnette Fourie1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7128-4958Johannes Froneman2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1680-4313Northwest UniversityNorthwest UniversityNorthwest University 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. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1705democracyinformed citizenrydemocratic processSouth African (IEC)virtual public sphereprinciples |
| spellingShingle | Hannelie Otto Lynnette Fourie Johannes Froneman The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada Communicare democracy informed citizenry democratic process South African (IEC) virtual public sphere principles |
| title | The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada |
| title_full | The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada |
| title_fullStr | The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed | The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada |
| title_short | The creation of an Internet public sphere by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission and Elections Canada |
| title_sort | creation of an internet public sphere by south africa s independent electoral commission and elections canada |
| topic | democracy informed citizenry democratic process South African (IEC) virtual public sphere principles |
| url | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1705 |
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