Privatisation, commodification, and the public sphere

This chapter looks at the role of privatisation and the logic of commodification in the public sphere. It will discuss how the public sphere has come under waves of commodification and privatisation over the centuries; firstly with the advent of the commercial press, secondly with the privatisation of broadcast networks, thirdly with the privatisation of the telecoms networks on which the communication channels rely, and finally with the advent of the internet and social media channels. Although there was some hope of a more democratic public sphere through the online revolution, we argue that the privately controlled online and social media sphere has acted as yet another wave of the commodification. Moreover, we argue that due to the nature of social media this acts in some ways as a more fundamental form of commodification. This chapter argues that serious regulation of privately controlled and owned social media and social media algorithms are needed as a minimum, but ultimately what is needed is a non-privately owned nor controlled public sphere infrastructure.