Habermas introduces the idea of the public sphere. He states that a Feudal / Medieval public sphere was invented in the 1800’s and developed into a Bourgeois public sphere where public opinion could be discussed freely. The public sphere has changed with time and Habermas says that it is no longer possible to have a public sphere made up of private citizens who engage in critical debate about politics and media. Back then, everyone had to be able to participate; now, everyone is not able to participate because we are controlled by certain corporations because of our capitalist society. The definition of free speech has changed greatly since the first public sphere. The bourgeois public sphere started to decline partly because of mass media (radio, television, etc). Habermas said that the capitalist phase of modernity transformed the public sphere from a culture-debating to a culture-consuming sphere because mass media separated the private from the public sphere by affecting participation in organized forms of leisure and social/political activities.
In today’s society we are too concerned about our self-presentation to say anything that would raise debate about politics. Advertising and public relations has changed the public sphere the most because both misrepresent public opinion and public interests. Corporations advertise in a way that makes a large percentage of the general public like and buy what they want them to buy. How can we now form a public sphere, including freedom of speech and opinion, when most of our thoughts and ideas are so overwhelmed with constant advertising by the media? Even the choices we have about which products to buy are choices set forth by the corporations. We have limited brands to choose from. Therefore the public sphere has drastically shifted from beginning to end and a large cause of that is today’s media.
tif23 
I like your entry! Especially the part about how corporations and their advertising seems to prohibit us from forming our own public sphere.
You ask, ‘How can we now form a public sphere, including freedom of speech and opinion, when most of our thoughts and ideas are so overwhelmed with constant advertising by the media?’.
I think that the growth of the Internet and the interactive features of the Internet can help us to form our own public sphere. As I see it, the Internet seems to gives us the tools to fight against the traditionally mass media controlled concepts of the public sphere through things such as Blogs and interactive features on websites (like CNNs iReport letting the audience participate in the news making process).
I actually just did an entry about the public sphere as well (and I wanted to see if other people had written about it too and went looking)! It’s at igorristic.wordpress.com!