The Public Sphere on X: an analysis of an Ecuadorian social movement


Christine Taylhardat, Western University

Over the last two decades, an ever-increasing share of human communication has turned towards online spaces. However, in academic literature, the quality of these new forms of connection remains in question. Since Jürgen Habermas (1989) introduced the theory of the public sphere, there is now a debate in the public sphere literature of whether the public sphere can still exist in online spaces (e.g., Bruns 2018; Della Porta 2022; Habermas 2022; Kellner 2024; Papacharissi 2002; Rosa 2022; Sevignani 2022). The original formulation of the public sphere is a space for individuals to interact and deliberate over public issues in a rational and constructive manner. With the Internet, and social media, these spaces have moved to an online sphere. While Habermas (2022) is less optimistic of the state of the public sphere in light of new media, other studies on online public spaces indicate that the public sphere can exist and is evolving over time. Using the recent #SiAlYasuni campaign that mobilized in Ecuador in 2023 through the social media platform X, this study seeks to examine whether a hashtag like this can become a public sphere. More specifically, the paper asks to what degree was the #SiAlYasuni movement debated on X? What properties of a public sphere appeared in its hashtag on X? Using tweets scraped from X, the paper finds that, unlike some social platforms, the affordances of X allow users to directly interact with each other through comments, retweets, and likes, providing a setting for easy discussion where a public sphere can potentially form around key issues. The singular, unifying hashtag #SiAlYasuni also facilitates the formation of a public sphere by creating a space where individuals are discussing this specific issue. Using a quantitative content analysis, this study created a coding scheme to systematically measure specific features of the public sphere. The coding scheme operationalizes concepts from the public sphere such as deliberation, civility, and criticism based on previous literature such as Del Valle et al. (2020), Freelon (2015), and Koopmanz and Olzak (2004). Following the coding of the post metrics and text, this study analyzes the data to reveal patterns in how users interact within online spaces. This study aims to add to the existing literature on the public sphere and its application to online spaces, as well as the quality of democratic debates in these spaces. Likewise, this study will also further our understanding on how social movements use online platforms to diffuse their message and debate current issues.

This paper will be presented at the following session: