Some sociologists and political scientists have noted that in modern societies the public space
is rapidly being privatized by individual and group interests that are not rooted in active civic
engagement. In fact, active citizens and a civil society as a whole are often seen as enemies of
such interests. Public space is becoming increasingly depopulated. We live in an era in which
the media that work in the service of private interests, however, fill the public space with virtual
stories that often have only one purpose—to manipulate public opinion and transform the civil
society into an unstructured mass (Pehe, 2012).