Web 2.0 =Early Modern bourgeois public sphere

I am writing an article for the newspaper about web 2.0 in the classroom and asked a few professors on their thoughts about this topic.

English Literature professor Chris Flynn impressed me with his response and how he connects 18th century britian literature to Web 2.0.

I thouhght it would be interesting for others to read his full text that won't appear in the newspaper article.

Dr. Flynn writes;

"My major field of research is 18th-century British literature. During this period, what historians and critics call the "Early Modern bourgeois public sphere" came into being. This is what now know as "public opinion," and it was the result of men of many economic and social classes - and a few women - engaging in informed, open debate. This debate took place in physical locations new to England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The main one was the coffee shop. This debate arose from common readership of periodicals and newspapers, which, like the coffee shop, were also fairly new in England during this period. The first English newspaper appeared in the last third of the 17th century, and the first periodicals appeared in the early 18th century. So, the combination of the coffee shop and periodical led to the first open, informed debate across class lines, developing ideas that found their way into public policy, business and much contemporary writing.

What does this have to do with the web? Well, the web, when used well, reproduces some of the characteristics of public debate in the Early Modern public sphere. Like the early 18th-century printing press, the early 21st-century web is very democratic in terms of access. 15 years ago people could not communicate directly with large numbers of people about public events, literature, life in the city, sports, etc., the way they can now, because the later stages of capitalism made print so undemocratic that you needed to own a newspaper or television station or radio station in order to communicate to large numbers. Daniel Defoe would finish his Review, take it to the printer, have it printed off, then have someone drop it off at the booksellers to distribute, and it would find its way into the coffee shops. People would talk, laugh and yell about the things they read there with each other in public places. This dialectic exchange developed ideas. A current reader of the New Yorker - or one before there were comments sections online - would read alone, share a chuckle or deep thought with one or two intimates, and there the interchange of ideas would stop. The internet has radically changed that, mostly for the better."


I found this really interesting and hope some others did as well!