Abstract

Through two concepts, this paper investigates how online culture is shifting our understanding of media, communication and what could be described as the public sphere. The concept of intercommunication is developed to explicate how online culture blends what has often been seen as separate domains: there is now a higher fluidity between what is seen as media and what is seen as a form of communication. In effect, there is now an interpersonal mediation of communication through social media where what we like and dislike is shared and exchanged. The result of this different structure of communication is a transforming public sphere that highlights how the personal dimension of communication is privileged. To unpack this shifted structure of media and communication, the paper develops the concept of persona. Persona, as a structure and presentation of personal identity for different publics, helps us understand how the individual has to present themselves strategically and tactically in this intercommunicative world. Through a series of examples that analyse memes, social network identity, and communication, and new iterations of what could be construed as private, public, and professional identity, the paper investigates this emerging “intercommunicative public self.”