Does the tabloid newspaper have a place in a modern day public sphere?

Habermas`s bourgeois public sphere was initially set up as a arena for mass communication and exchange of information that would inform and enlighten its publics.

The broadsheet newspaper fits in best with this definition, as the broadsheet readership still retains many of the characteristics distinctive with the bourgeois classes; professional people with possible political and economical agendas. Although the broadsheet is what people refer to as the ‘real paper’ it is infact the tabloid that falls into favour.

In our celebrity and entertainment driven society people are looking for light relief and are thirsty for gossip of the rich and famous. People are more interested in what the inside of a politician’s house looks like, rather than the political promises he or his constituency can offer.

The tabloid gives the audience inclusion; it gives people an institution to focus on that contains common ground.

It is published to be consumed quickly and uses language that is common to the masses.

The two-way exchange means attributed to the tabloid style means we are given the sense of our opinion being of value. When viewed in this context, could the tabloid actually be the media tool to generate a modern day public sphere?

Socially, our priorities have changed as consumers, our tastes in what we digest has taken a celebrity spin with politics and religion taking a back seat. Even the monarchy is easier digested in a celebrity context. Be it Prince Harry being photographed falling out a club at two in the morning, or the sensationalism of Diana’s death and the subsequent court hearings.

It is true to say that the tabloid newspaper has no place in Habernas`s definitions of what the public sphere was, a place dominated by men of upper class with a business or political agenda. If however we take the public sphere as an arena for information to reach and be discussed by the masses, I think it would be fair to say that in the celebrity obsessed world we live in, the tabloid is a very true representation of the audiences that a modern day public sphere strives to reach.

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