ABSTRACT
His writings demonstrate a commitment to critique modernity, while also producing positive ideals for democratic political behaviour. In his early work, he argues that mass access to mediated debate has had a deleterious effect on the quality of public life. His work has also lent itself, however, to histories of public media, especially film culture, which are not antagonistic to mass entertainment in public spaces. Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge (1993), major figures in New German Cinema, were influenced by his ideas when they wrote about alternative publics and film. Film theorist Miriam Hansen (1991) also pursued the public nature of film-going in her research of early Hollywood cinema. Habermas is widely used for good reason: he writes accessibly, as an exjournalist, and passionately, as a true philosopher of the modern age.
