Abstract:
This study examines the efforts to use communication technology to create a public sphere in two very different circumstances. The first instance was in socialist Czechoslovakia in January of 1968, when a group of reformers were given the leadership of an authoritarian government in an economic crisis. They instituted such reforms as freedom of expression to re-engage the population and revitalize the economy. The second instance was in August of that same year when a foreign military intervention stopped the government’s reform agenda. In both situations, broadcast and consumer technology played crucial roles by engaging citizen participation in politics and the public space.
