Technoculture: From Alphabet to Cybersex

Although Habermas identified the space between the public and the private as the public sphere, and as a place where the state can be criticised, it is also a space where popular culture can be created, personalised, recognised and enjoyed. While this is not Habermas' perspective (interested as he is in issues of citizenship and the political economy), it is a perspective of relevance to the field of cultural studies. Cultural studies is concerned, amongst other things, with the creation and circulation of popular culture—and popular culture is of critical importance both to technoculture and to commercial media. The motivation of many publishers of popular culture may be to sell the commercial audience to advertisers, but this aim does not compromise the inherent popularity of the content. Active participation in popular culture, and in early-adoption technoculture, is voluntary. Generally we become involved because we wish to be so.

Where commercial media are complemented by public service media, funded by government finance or by subscription, the justification for the public service is to provide material and programming which would be ignored or marginalised in commercial media. Thus, public service broadcasters are under an obligation to produce programming that might not get made or shown if commercial interests were the only ones operating in the mass media sphere. In practice, the public service/subscription broadcaster concentrates upon political comment and current affairs, innovative programming, alternative and highbrow culture, the analytical, the radical, the controversial/critical (which may upset advertisers) and other programming for minority interests. Public

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