从信息鸿沟到虚拟见证:网络公共领域何以可能

From Information Divide to Virtual Witnessing:How Could Internet Public Sphere be Possible?

哈贝马斯认为,启蒙运动中的咖啡馆提供了平等性这种公共领域形成的首要属性。然而在信息社会中由区隔所造成的话语权的不对称,却使得平等成为网络公共领域形成中最需要被解决的问题。本文通过对比公共领域在东西方产生的起源指出,"弱者的武器"和"差序格局"等社会的结构性特征所导致的地方性"小圈子"是制约中国的传统,乃至网络公共领域产生的主要原因。而要跳出从个体性到群体性的魔咒,就只有如虚拟见证一般,通过脱下社会身份的先验性外衣实现在匿名性下无限的团结。也只有通过微小但无限的"我",才可能以共同的"网民"之名,战胜强大但有限的网络精英,从而以一种涓滴之势和平地推动网络民主化。

Habermas regards fairness as the primary character of the public sphere learning from the experience of Western coffeehouses. The un-even power of discourse already existing on the internet however, leaves us the fairness as the primary problem to be solved. This paper compares the origins of the public sphere in both Western and Eastern societies, and concludes that it is structural features, such as ＂weapons of the weak＂ and ＂Chaxu Geju＂, that lead the sphere in China more localized and banded together, which finally restrict the emergence of the traditional as well as the internet public sphere. To solve this dilemma, we should promote what the British did in the 17th century by the name of virtual witnessing to remove the prior identity in society, so that the infinite unity under anonymity could be realized. Step by Step, there should be a possibility that the tiny but infinite ＂me＂ can defeat the powerful but limited elites in the common name of ＂netizen＂. The internet democracy could be reached peacefully as well, by these trickle-down practices.