section_path: News consumption/Public sphere
section_name: Public sphere
paragraph_text: Public sphere
  
  This collective form experience can be understood to constitute a political realm or public sphere. In this view, the news media constitute a fourth estate which serves to check and balance the operations of government.
  
  This idea, at least as a goal to be sought, has re-emerged in the era of global communications. Today, unprecedented opportunities exist for public analysis and discussion of world events. According to one interpretation of the CNN effect, instantaneous global news coverage can rally public opinion as never before to motivate political action. In 1989, local and global communications media-enabled instant exposure to and discussion of the Chinese government's actions in Tiananmen Square. The news about Tiananmen Square travelled over a fax machine, telephone, newspaper, radio, and television, and continued to travel even after the government imposed new restrictions on local telecommunications.