| Summary: | A prerequisite for a healthy, sustainable democracy is an informed citizenry that partakes in the
democratic process. This line of thought can be drawn back to the work of Habermas
(Habermas, 1989:49). Accordingly, such active engagement necessitates communication to
transpire between a citizenry and its chosen representatives as to sustain the democratic
process. This also suggests that citizens should be able to participate in the communication
process.
Consequently, in recent years much discourse on the media and democracy correlation has
focused on the potential role that the internet could play in the furtherance of democratic values.
Optimistically, a virtual political public forum in which matters of general political concern are
discussed could enhance political participation and the consolidation of political rights. The
Habermasian public-sphere model incorporates three key elements, which could be applied in
this context persons should have universal access to the sphere, the freedom to express
diverse opinions, the freedom to receive diverse opinions and information, in addition to the
freedom of participating in the public sphere without interference from state or mercantile
imperatives (cf.Habermas, 1989).
A qualitative content analysis of the web site of Elections Canada showed that the supposedly
non-operational public-sphere model could be recovered within a new media context such as the
internet despite the fact that the inherent interactive nature of the internet was not fully exploited
by Elections Canada.
Against this background, the assumption was made that the public-sphere's concepts could also
be applied in the context of a developing democracy and accordingly that the sustainability of
the democratic system could be further consolidated. The Electoral Commission (IEC) was
chosen as a case study, since it is constitutionally mandated to establish a democratic South
African society. The creation of an internet public sphere could therefore be one of the ways in
which the IEC could contribute to this consolidation process.
Through extensive content analysis, it was established that the organisational web site of the
IEC was mainly expended as an information dissemination and organisational image-profiling
tool. As a result the web site was did not focus on participatory communication. Universal
access to the web site was also rather restricted, resulting in limited web site participation to
voters from specific socio-economic, cultural, and language backgrounds. It was discovered,
nevertheless, that some of the contents available on the web site could at least facilitate 'offline"
participatory democracy and public opinion formation. Therefore, although the web site did not
implement all of the normative prescriptions of the public-sphere ideal, voters were able to
retrieve valuable electoral information that would assist them in capably participating in electoral
democracy. === Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.
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