摘要 : “The” public sphere is now irretrievably fractured into a multiplicity of online and offline, larger and smaller, more or less public spaces that frequently(and often serendipitously) overlap and intersect with one another. This d... 展开 “The” public sphere is now irretrievably fractured into a multiplicity of online and offline, larger and smaller, more or less public spaces that frequently(and often serendipitously) overlap and intersect with one another. This diverse array of what have been described variously as publicspheres, public spherules, platform publics, issue publics, or personal publics nonetheless serves many of the same functions that were postulatedfor the public sphere itself. However, while the communicative structures, functions, and dynamics of many such spaces have been studiedin isolation, we still lack a more comprehensive model that connects such case studies in pursuit of an overarching perspective. This articlesets out a fundamental toolkit for the development of such an empirically founded model of the contemporary spaces for public communication.It identifies the crucial conceptual building blocks and empirical approaches that may be combined to produce genuinely new insights into howthe network of such spaces is structured, and in turn structures our everyday experience of public communication. 收起