Stephen Downes

This of course seems right to me: "to still speak of 'the public sphere' may be a misnomer: our communicative environment has been reconfigured by contemporary digital and social media technologies to a point where it is no longer unitary, entirely public, or concentrically arranged around a set of agenda-setting mass media." So what may be said instead? In his slide presentation he talks about groups, communities, crowds and audience, though the best description is in the title, "From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics." (I'm surprised I can read the presentation on Slideshare without being slammed, so enjoy it while you can). See also.