Description: This book examines how online digital media shape and are shaped by contemporary democracies, by addressing issues around our understanding of public and private, questioning how citizens of today practice civic responsibilities, and analyzing political behaviors associated with digital technologies.
Review Quotes: "This is a deeply thoughtful book that asks a genuinely important questionÑDo the new media empower us or do they trap us in our own cocoons, cutting us off from meaningful contact with others? Papacharissi doesn't let the reader off easily. Insistently, beguilingly, she brings up uncomfortable issuesÑWhy are blogs so narcissistic? What happens politically when YouTube goes beyond the pale?Ñand she never settles for easy answers. If you care about politics, if you care about modernity, read this book."
Roderick P. Hart, University of Texas at Austin
"Papacharissi is a pioneer in the study of democracy and how it is "practiced" in the digital age. A Private Sphere is a deep, thoughtful exploration of citizenship, information, and technology at a moment of great fluidity. Anyone with an interest in how media shape political culture would do well to engage the arguments of this terrific book."
Susan Herbst, Georgia Tech
"An thoughtful and thought-provoking book. Papacharissi's argument that the convergence of technology, practices and spaces is opening a private sphere as the locus for reworked modes of citizenship is an intriguing and important one. Read this book!"
Charles Whitney, Northwestern University