A research on the public sphere quality of internet: Internet usage of the university students in Ankara

Internet, as a means of politics, economy, communication and identity of the 21th century, is one of the most debated topics today. In recent years, the debate whether internet is a virtual public sphere or not has been added to thesedebates. The existence of an ideal public sphere, as an indispensable part of democracy, depends on a communication medium free from every kind of pressure where everyone can express an opinion. Existence of communication is necessary for this. Due to rapid monopolization in the 20th century, traditional means of mass communication has lost their function of forming a public sphere. Internet, which emerged in this period, has not only transformed traditional means of mass communication but also taken on the tasks of liberalization and democratization attributed to traditional means of mass communication in the past. In this thesis, a survey has been conducted in three different universities in Ankara (Middle East Technical University, Gazi University and Ankara University) with 496 students in order to find out why these students use the internet and whether they see it as a public sphere. In this thesis, benefiting from the results of this survey, it is debated whether internet is used for personal purposes or as a public sphere where public matters are discussed and solutions are offered for these matters based on the purposes to use internet.Key Words: Public Sphere, Public opinion, Communication, Internet, Aims to Use İnternet