Facebook As a Public Sphere: Rational and Emotional Political Engagement Among Educated Users in Pakistan

Abstract: This study highlights the type of political arguments by Facebook users based on the concept of the public sphere and deliberative democracy advanced by Jürgen Habermas. Besides other components of the public sphere, ‘rational and logical argumentation’ is of the primary concern set forth by Habermas. The study attempts to explore this dimension by finding out the use of type arguments by Facebook users during their political discussions on Facebook. The data was collected through in-depth interviews from 11 informants which helped get an insight into their experiences and the answers to the research question posed. The informants comprised eleven BS and PhD students (5 and 6 respectively; out of which 7 were males and 4 were females) who were registered voters and had liked the Facebook pages of any political party during the election campaign in Pakistan. The study uses the public sphere, as theoretical perspectives to guide the research questions. Thematic analysis was used and NVvivo 12 was used for the categorization of data. Findings show that users used this platform to express their opinions and viewpoints freely; as educated users, they mostly engaged themselves in rational arguments. The study’s findings are consistent with the existing literature that logical argumentation is used mostly by educated voters/users whereas most of the common users focus on emotional arguments. The study helps to shed light on the type of political discourses used by social media users which is an under researched area. Keywords: Facebook, Arguments, Emotional, Components, Sphere.