Medium without message? Followed by 'Public opinion, in spite of all'

Summary: Sociology today is very often confronted with the assumption that communication is a purely instrumental, intransitive activity. It furthermore faces the idea that the media do not serve as a basis for the conflictual construction of representations, norms and values, but only as an empirical and disordered juxtaposition of meaningless information. Consequently, it seems relevant to question the value of notions such as the 'public sphere' and 'public opinion'. The latter is a necessity peculiar to modern societies which, without tradition, have to rely on argumentation and intersubjectivity to operate. The pseudo-scientific positivism which is alleged to have replaced teleological discourse in the public sphere has in this sense to be considered as rhetoric, a means of argumentation.