Dahlberg, Lincoln. "The Internet and democratic discourse: Exploring the prospects of online deliberative forums extending the public sphere." Information, communication & society 4.4 (2001): 615-633.

This paper examines the potential realization of deliberative democracy in cyberspace, comparing existing online discourse with Jürgen Habermas' public sphere requirements. It identifies limitations in expanding the public sphere online and explores an online democracy project aimed at fostering deliberation. While the project overcame many impediments of unstructured online discussions, it struggled to gain a representative sample of the population and faced competition from commercial sites and individualist political practices. The paper concludes that expanding the public sphere online requires not only creating deliberative spaces but also attracting participants socialized in a culture resistant to public deliberation.