Browsing by Author "Mackay, Sam"

This thesis explores the idea of the creation of political discourse on social media platforms, aiming to address whether social media (and in particular Facebook) under private ownership could be considered forms of Habermasian Public Spheres. A theory of what constitutes a modern Public Sphere is created and then, through a discourse analysis the ideology of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is examined in relation to his moderation of the platform and the effect this has on political discourse. This paper finds that under private ownership social media platforms such as Facebook have awarded unprecedented amounts of power over the public discourse to individual, unaccountable private citizens and that this calls into question the validity of these platforms as Public Spheres.