Recently, a new working paper by ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp together with colleagues Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen and Prof. em. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink entitled “The Refiguration of Public Communication: A Relational and Process-oriented Perspective” was published.
The work addresses the concepts of “public sphere” and its “structural change” in communication and media research. It is criticized that these are often imprecise and empirically vague. The article presents a new theoretical approach that understands public communication as a processual change that is characterized by the changes in the media landscape in the course of mediatization. At its core is the idea that public communication is not limited to a single public sphere, but that the dynamics between different types of publics are transformed. The article offers a relational and process-oriented perspective and aims to make a theoretical contribution.