While admiring the vastness of Hargreaves' ideological system, the English-speaking world has analyzed the gains and losses of the public sphere theory in many aspects. Craig calhoun of the University of North Carolina in the United States believes that the Public Sphere attracted controversy as soon as it was published, and may continue to cause controversy (at the beginning of the publication of the book, some German left-wing youths criticized it for rejecting the proletarian public sphere, failing to fully grasp the daily life in the developed capitalist system (including mass media) and exaggerating the liberation potential of the idealized bourgeois public sphere (. Calhoun also pointed out that the main shortcoming of the public sphere is that it fails to treat the "classical" bourgeois public sphere and the "organized" or "present" bourgeois public sphere equally. "Habermas tends to judge18th century with the eyes of Locke and Kant,19th century with the eyes of Marx and Mill, and the 20th century with the eyes of typical suburban TV viewers." Therefore, Hargreaves did not take seriously the achievements of the first-class thinkers in the 20th century, and restored the distorted truth in his works, which is the characteristic of his research on 17, 18 and19th century. On the contrary, he did not see vulgar publications that were neither rational nor critical, nor tabloids that published sensational stories of crimes and scandals. The result may be to exaggerate the degradation of the public sphere in the 20th century. /kloc-the revival of the critical political public in the 1960s further illustrates this point. In addition, the public's position in the mass media is not necessarily as negative as alleged in the book Public * * *. As far as alternative democratic media strategy is concerned, there may be more room than Hartman realized (Cahhoun, 1992: 33).

Nicholas Garnham of Central London Institute of Technology in the United Kingdom has a more positive attitude towards the theory of public domain. He summed up the academic criticism of the book Public Affairs as follows:

(1) Hargreaves neglected the development of the contemporary civilian public sphere parallel to the bourgeois public sphere;

(2) Hargreaves idealized the bourgeois public sphere. The research reveals the structure of vicious competition in the early printing market, which is not controlled by intellectuals who are committed to mass enlightenment and can communicate freely.

(3) Hargreaves excluded the family and economy from the public sphere;

(4) Hartman's rationalism communication mode prevents him from forming a pluralistic theory of public sphere;

(5) The second half of the "public sphere" has a distinct elite cultural orientation, so it relies too much on Adorno's cultural industry model, exaggerates the manipulation power of cultural industry controllers and ignores the public welfare model of state intervention in the information field.

(6) Although Hartman's communication mode has become the norm of public-private communication, it ignores other non-knowledge-seeking communication behaviors;

(7) Therefore, he drew a clear line between information and entertainment, ignoring the relationship between them, which is of special importance in thinking about the role of mass media in contemporary democratic society (Garnham 1992: 359 ~ 360).

Garnham believes that although these criticisms are helpful to improve Hargreaves' theory, they cannot belittle the three advantages of the public sphere:

(1) It pays attention to the lasting relationship between mass media system and practice and between democratic political system and practice;

(2) Pay attention to the indispensable material foundation of any public sphere;

(3) It avoids the simple dichotomy of "free market/state control" which dominates the media policy research in Europe and America.

These advantages may be more valuable today than then for two reasons.

First, with the process of global market integration and the establishment of global private economic centers, the foundation of nation-state is shaking; Traditionally, within the political framework of a nation-state, the issue of citizenship, the relationship between communication and politics and the nature of citizenship. In order to control the global economy and politics democratically, we must cultivate a new political system and public sphere.

Second, the traditional public broadcasting and television system in Western Europe is undergoing profound changes. This change has the following characteristics: market power is enhanced; Reform the existing public service mode of cultural resources distribution; Television has become the center of more and more personalized and family consumption patterns; In the market, there are information rich people and information poor people who enjoy expensive professional information and cultural services); They accept increasingly homogeneous mass entertainment services. The transfer of information and culture from domestic to international and the subsequent surge of new audio-visual products; Deregulation and privatization of state-owned telecom monopoly industries; The infiltration of sponsors into sports and art; Under the pressure of cutting public expenditure, educational and scientific research institutions turn to private financing; Take economic interests as the standard of providing public information. The result of this trend will change the balance between the cultural market and public welfare (Garnham, 1992: 360 ~ 363).

Professor Michael Schudson of the University of California, San Diego, USA, takes the United States as a case, starting with two elements in the public sphere: citizens' political participation and rational-critical political communication, and then draws the following conclusion: in the colonial period of18th century, rational-critical discussions in the general sense, which have become the political characteristics of the United States today, need riots with political intentions. /kloc-in the 20th century, political communication did not become more rational and critical with the substantial progress of political participation. If we infer the politics of18th century according to the Federalist Collected Works and the Lincoln-Douglas abolitionist debate published in the newspaper, it is like describing the debate of 1974 impeachment of President Nixon by the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives on TV and extensive discussions among people from all walks of life. These are special cases, but they can't reflect the normal political exchanges in their respective times. Therefore, it is groundless to say that the public sphere of rational and critical political communication flourished in America in the early18th century and19th century (Schudson, 1992: 160, 146). In view of some scholars who echoed Hargreaves' view that party newspapers (which Hargreaves called "faith-spreading newspapers") (Habermas, 1999a: 22 1) were inflated and contemporary mainstream commercial newspapers were devalued, Schudson did not call the period of party newspapers "dark period" as frankl did. Mott, a famous American journalist. From 1840 to 1900, although many newspapers are affiliated to political parties, the content of political discussions and the proportion of news in newspapers have greatly increased, and the degree of political participation has reached the highest level. However, the different opinions expressed in some columns and programs of contemporary mass media are closer to the political communication of rational criticism in some form. Therefore, in his view, as far as the situation in the United States is concerned, the theory that the media is "not as good as before" is untenable. In other words, Hargreaves is suspected of being over-praised by early newspapers (Schudson,1992:152-156).

Like Garnham, Professor Hans Westeraton, director of Media Sociology Center of Free University of Brussels, pays more attention to the practical significance of public sphere theory in contemporary social situation. In his view, Hartman's concept of public domain is based on the following elements (Verstraeten, 1996: 348):

1. The public sector needs a forum that is open to as many people as possible and can express and exchange various social experiences.

2. In the field of public affairs, we can face all kinds of arguments and opinions through rational discussion. This means that a "rational" political choice is possible only when the public domain first clearly understands the various choices that a person may make. At the same time, the media should provide the widest possible explanation framework so that citizens can know that they have no choice.

3. A systematic and critical review of government policies is the primary task of this public domain.

From the structural characteristics of the above public domain, we can draw the following important conclusions related to the media (Verstraeten, 1996: 348 ~ 349):

(1) The concept of public sphere must not be confused with the laws and regulations of public radio and television, because most public radio and television companies in Western Europe have provided many examples of public sphere being controlled.

(2) The above structural characteristics just show that such a "public * * * field" has never really appeared, but at best there is some kind of "bud". In this case, there is no fading and degradation of the common field. So we discuss the relationship between the media and the public sphere, which has nothing to do with nostalgia and returning to the19th century. On the contrary, we first need to base ourselves on the contemporary social situation to make the concept of public sphere have practical significance (Verstraeten, 1996: 348 ~ 349).

Westeraton believes that in view of this, the rationality in the field of public affairs cannot be interpreted too narrowly. Although it is related to a basic problem in the field of contemporary society-communication, rationality and subjectivity, it is extremely complicated. If this rationality only refers to the rational and well-founded discussion of various "serious" social topics, it may lead to the wrong conclusion that only the information transmission function of the media is concerned. This is by no means the case. The entertainment function of media (which is dominant on TV) also plays an important role in promoting the transformation of public sector (Verstraeten, 1996: 352 ~ 353).

Westeraton stressed that it seems that contemporary communication scholars should re-recognize the views of McLuhan and his teacher Harodinnis, instead of simply dismissing them as "technological determinism", and should take media technology research as their important mission. The development of audio-visual media strongly influences the structure of public sphere. Telecommunications should not be regarded as a technical means to realize rapid communication between two separate "status environments", but as a medium to greatly change social status. With telecommunications, people have a better understanding of the "stepping down" behavior of other social groups, so telecommunications puts people in the public sphere in different positions; The public sphere will have greater motivation, and it is no longer just based on "onstage" behavior (Verstraeten, 1996: 354 ~ 355).

It is also interesting to see Hargreaves' own later comments. By1early 1990s, he had abandoned the tradition of ideological criticism (Cahhoun, 1992: 40) and turned to agree with the traditional values of western society (his position in 1999 NATO-Yugoslavia War showed this (Habermas,/kloc-0 In his preface to the new German edition of Public Affairs in March 1990, he admitted, "If I re-study the structural transformation in the field of public affairs today ... perhaps, the difference from writing this book is that my comments will be less pessimistic and some stubborn elements will be removed from my hypothetical prospects." Great changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have enabled him to see once again the vitality of "mass democracy in welfare countries" and the role of mass media, especially television, which he neglected in the past:

The great changes in GDR, Czechoslovakia and Romania constitute a chain event, which is not only a historical event of TV broadcasting, but also completed by TV broadcasting itself. The mass media has not only played a spreading role in the world. Different from19th century and early 20th century, TV transformed the real existence of pedestrians in the square and the street into ubiquitous existence, so they showed revolutionary power.

Due to the depth of Hargreaves' field theory, the need of in-depth research in China and the limitation of the author's ability, I can only give some personal opinions here. As calhoun said, the greatest contribution in the field of public affairs is not that it gives some authoritative judgment, but that as a fruitful and brilliant generator, it constantly inspires new research, analysis and theory (calhoun, 1992: 4 1). The praise and criticism of European and American scholars have proved its value. If the qualifier "bourgeois" is removed, then the public sphere, as a goal to be achieved, is also of great research and reference significance under the background of vigorously developing socialist democracy and the rule of law and promoting the development of market economy in China.

First of all, a reasonable and healthy country should strive to build a society with a clear distinction between public and private, freedom and responsibility.

Secondly, a modern country ruled by law must have a good media environment, so that the media can interact with the state, society and the public to safeguard democracy and the rule of law;

Third, the media should clarify and maintain its role as a social tool, become a public information platform and public forum, and prevent it from being degraded by bad political and economic forces.

Fourth, the media conveys the rational and critical voice of responsible social members, rather than the irrational and manipulated will;

Fifth, the political economy method of media research is still the basic method, but it must be developed;

Sixth, the relationship between media and high technology and new economy and the influence of new technology on media and society need further study.