Private/Public

In this chapter, the dichotomy between public and private is introduced by exploring the genesis of the postal system in pre-revolutionary France, enabling private forms of communication between individuals, but also by explaining how this ultimately led to the emergence of journalism and the constitution of “a” public. This is explored further by discussing the distinction and separation that was gradually made, and promoted by liberalism, between the sanctity of the private sphere and the deliberative power of the public sphere. Another way in which the dichotomy of the private and the public plays out in the context of media and communication is through the prism of private and public interests. Both communication and media were first developed and commercially exploited by private individuals, but state power was never far off. Furthermore, media and communication tools were also increasingly seen as being of public interest, justifying public interventions on moral grounds or in the context of state security, but also to keep capitalist interests in check and to conduct social policies. This also brings the issue of ownership into focus and debates regarding the need for private ownership of media and communication version public ownership structures. A third ownership model of media and communication, which is collective and community-based, is also identified. The chapter ends by discussing the demise of privacy in the digit