An engaging and concise study of journalism and contemporary digital media framed within the idea of Jurgen Habermas' public sphere (not particularly engaging much of the theory on the 'public sphere' after Habermas' 1960s description, but instead using this early definition as a way of framing an argument about contemporary centralised media).

Browne takes the public sphere from a press and communications angle, discussing how news media reinforce a capitalist hegem0ony, intentionally and unintentionally. He then discusses contemporary media and the role of the public sphere in Facebook, in particular. In the former, the study is informative and well structured, using examples from Irish protests including the anti-Iraq-war protests (2003) and protests against water charges (2014). In the latter, some of the argument flounders, but he concludes with an optimistic and idealistic view of a world that can be built with public sphere(s) operating within it.