Mediated Frustration and Self-Legitimation

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology book series (PSEPS)

Abstract

Not only against particularly Jürgen Habermas’ writings about the EU and the public sphere, but also against the recent reflections by Anthony Giddens and Claus Offe on the same topic, this chapter argues for a ‘secularisation’ of the notion of communicative rationality in public opinion. This position leads to a nonideal concept of communication that views political rationality as political reflection. Within this frame of reference, the role of digital media (blogs, microblogs, social media, comments on digital news media) is not to enhance argumentative quality, but to provide opinionated expression and attachment to formal power. While this kind of political rationality works fairly well in a nation-state context, on a supranational level, communication rationality loses power and the European constellation of nation-states surrender to a constellation of empire.

Keywords

Digital media Public sphere EU Crisis Habermas Giddens Offe 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Media StudiesUniversity of OsloOsloNorway

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