Once again, Habermas' public sphere?

Through this week’s reading, I have recalled Habermas’ theories once again. How much our lifeworld has been colonized by systems? Do or can mass media function as public sphere to instigate public debate and to provide public forum for public issue? Frankly, I have doubted about a positive role of mass media. However, Fry’s article has given me a room to think about a potential of local media to serve as public sphere. Fry (p. 104) states that “the (local) station was able to broadcast many of the requests, rendering them literally a community bulletin board – a role they had never played in quite that way before or since.” I think that local media are relatively less dominated by the logic of system than national media. Therefore, they might work with the media of language, culture or norm of lifeworld rather than the media of money and power of systems. I think that some local media could work as “a community bulletin board” during the natural disaster because local reporters “had at stake as individuals and members of an affected community.” Buy, I don’t think that being local automatically guarantees a potential to being more public. However, I think that if community members can support local media with their check, the potential of local media to serve as public sphere can become more possible.