The Public Sphere. Theories of the information society.

The Public Sphere
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A lot of people have a common belief that the public sphere plays a substantial role in bringing democracy. Through the public sphere, people can discuss issues affecting the society as well as creating a political influence in an attempt to solve such issues. There is no a better way for people to express their grievances other than the public sphere. It is an imaginary community that brings people with common ideologies together. It is through various discussions within the society that people can push for both political and economic changes. The availability of information triggers such discussions, and this makes the libraries some of the institutions for the public sphere. Therefore, the concept of the public sphere applies to the relationship between libraries, information, and democracy by acting as a medium through which people can share ideas.
Libraries have been some of the oldest institutions through which people can access information. Author express their ideologies about society by writing books, journals, magazines, and other articles. It is through such articles that people can get informed about the happenings of the society. Once such information has been passed to society, it triggers the formation of the public sphere. The public sphere allows people to hold discussions about the current political and economic situation of their communities and attempt to push for changes. Hence, without such libraries, it would be challenging to achieve democracy through the public sphere since people need the information to push for changes. Public libraries are considered as centers for communications, which in turn, create a medium for facilitating public opinion. Democracy is brought about by decisions made by the people and for the people. Hence, given the availability of information in libraries, it becomes easy for people to access information and hold discussions about pressing matters of the community. As a result, the community can push for changes and achieve democracy. Therefore, the public sphere increases the need for information. In turn, this contributes to the availability of libraries and the achievement of democracy.
However, technological advancements have strained the relationship between libraries, information, and democracy. Technology has resulted in the digitalization of information, hence reducing the number of people that visit the libraries. An individual can access digitalized material from anywhere in the world. Hence, if people do not visit public libraries, then the libraries seize to be institutions for the public sphere. Such becomes a hindrance to democracy's achievement since the link between the public sphere and information is cut. However, such is not an indication that the members of a particular community would not be able to achieve democracy. The digitalization of information is playing a substantial role in making the internet a new institution for the public sphere (Wiegand, 2015). Hence, people would access information from the internet, hold discussions, and push for democratic actions. As well, libraries have taken an initiative of overcoming the digitalization challenge by creating online platforms where the mass...