Oltre la rappresentazione novecentesca delle dinamiche di opinione:la riconfigurazione del modello della doxasfera

Abstract

This article proposes a descriptive model of the performing areas present in the communication dynamics (doxasphere). This model allows us to redefine the bottlenecks of the concepts of public opinion inherited from the twentieth century tradition, definitively including the digital virtuality in the conditions of its construction and in conflicts of opinion. Moving from Bourdieu's statement that “the state of opinion, at a given moment, is a system of forces and tensions” (Bourdieu, 1973, p. 74), we identify four performing areas constantly intervening on the problematic issues that may generate conflicts of opinion: decision makers, pressure groups, multitudes and media. We define the representation of this framework “doxasphere”. Over the past few decades, the connected digital system triggered a reconfiguration of the doxasphere, whose dynamics are now produced by disintermediated decision makers, connected pressure groups and digital opinion leaders, prosumers (connected multitudes) and hybridized media.