First Amendment and private reading eroded the public sphere of discussion

Evidence

The First Amendment, then, did not secure the permanence of public life; in fact it acted against it because it finally placed the weight of education on the written tradition. Modern media of communication, largely for commercial purposes, created a system of communication that was essentially private. Private reading and the reading audience replaced the reading public and the public of discussion and argument. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647

Categorization

• XREF: This is the same diagnosis Habermas makes of the public sphere’s structural transformation; connects directly to Carey’s ritual-vs-transmission distinction and to modern debates about social media publics. — connects to: Press freedom replaced citizens’ right to speak with a right to be informed; Free press rights replaced speaking rights with the right to be spoken to — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 633; The public sphere collapses when the public becomes a statistical artifact — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647 (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647

Broader Connections

• The public sphere collapses when the public becomes a statistical artifact #expands (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647
• Thought is primarily public and social, not private #expands (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 200
• Free press rights replaced speaking rights with the right to be spoken to #expands (0.80) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 633
• Broadcast professionalism functions as a defensive retreat from contested content #complicates (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 872
• Pluralistic ignorance sustains norms even after private attitudes have shifted #expands (0.55) — , The Rod and the Child, 7327