WASET
	%0 Journal Article
	%A J. Bolzan and  C. Marden
	%D 2015
	%J International Journal of Information and Communication Engineering
	%B World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
	%I Open Science Index 103, 2015
	%T Media Regulation and Public Sphere in the Digital Age: An Analysis in the Light of Constructive Democracy
	%U https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10001585
	%V 103
	%X The article proposed intends to analyze the possibility
(and conditions) of a media regulation law in a democratic rule of law
in the twenty-first century. To do so, will be presented initially the
idea of the public sphere (by Jürgen Habermas), showing how it is
presented as an interface between the citizen and the state (or the
private and public) and how important is it in a deliberative
democracy. Based on this paradigm, the traditional perception of the
role of public information (such as system functional element) and on
the possibility of media regulation will be exposed, due to the public
nature of their activity. A critical argument will then be displayed
from two different perspectives: a) the formal function of the current
media information, considering that the digital age has fragmented
the information access; b) the concept of a constructive democracy,
which reduces the need for representation, changing the strategic
importance of the public sphere. The question to be addressed (based
on the comparative law) is if the regulation is justified in a
polycentric democracy, especially when it operates under the digital
age (with immediate and virtual communication). The proposal is to
be presented in the sense that even in a twenty-first century the media
in a democratic rule of law still has an extremely important role and
may be subject to regulation, but this should be on terms very
different (and narrower) from those usually defended.
	%P 2262 - 2267