City Public Space Constructed By Medium

Habermas discussed the ideal type of a bourgeois public sphere, but this ideal type of urban space in the reality is not rational description. In this paper, the author describes the true face of contemporary urban public space, then analyzes their similarities and differences with the classical theory of the public sphere through ethnographic study of a coffee house in Guangzhou and combined with the experience of other field locations. After reviewed the theory of media construction, the author analysis the reasons why contemporary urban public space shifted and the consequences of this shift possible from three perspectives, namely the construction of media space, identity and culture.This paper argues that the development of media technology is the main cause of changes in the contemporary urban public space form and cultures. 1)Generation and development of urban public space most experienced development from online forms to offline forms, and eventually interactive form between online and offline. The use of new media is also conducive to the organizers of the construction benign image of the organization and increase the media legitimacy of organization. 2)Participants of urban public space has different communicative motivations. Participants form the basis of the identity of urban public space is part of the identity of anonymity, the anonymity is actually a continuation from online identity. 3)It also makes the culture of urban public space corresponding change has occurred. Coffee house participants have different spatial imagination which makes the cafe has become a place that can make space converse. At the same time the intimacy generated in this process makes the public sphere and the private sphere to become a place to coexist. Intimacy in public space is not contradictory with the public phase, only to meet the psychological needs of the modern city.And in this kind of public intimacy is also slowly being developed prototype in the public sphere.