The paper explores the fragmented discourses in the Indian digital public sphere in a post-truth world. The normative concept of the public sphere by Jürgen Habermas has been brought under critical scrutiny in the era of emotional communication online. The digital world opened democratic and inclusive spaces that are desirable for a picture-perfect public sphere as imagined by Habermas. The low entry barriers and inclusivity of the digital public sphere changed the patterns of political communication worldwide. However, such a change is not an isolated event and must be located within the historical context of a changing political environment. Contemporary society has entered the post-truth era where opinionated, emotional outbursts downplay objective reality. The paper explores explicitly the public comments recorded under an infotainment video on the YouTube platform of a private channel in Kerala, the southernmost state of India. A case study method was adopted to analyze the theme, subtext, and visible structure of the discourse in the digital public sphere, which is a subset of the larger public sphere. Disconcertingly, the findings revealed fragmented discourses in a public sphere, characterized by unidimensional historical narratives, fallacious arguments, political apathy, and emotional or romanticized appeals, all of which are classic symptoms of a post-truth era.

本文探讨了后真相世界中印度数字公共领域的碎片化话语。于尔根·哈贝马斯提出的公共领域规范概念在网络情感交流时代受到了严格的审视。数字世界开辟了民主和包容的空间，这是哈贝马斯想象中完美公共领域所渴望的。数字公共领域的低准入门槛和包容性改变了全球政治传播的模式。然而，这种变化并不是一个孤立的事件，必须置于不断变化的政治环境的历史背景中。当代社会已经进入后真相时代，固执己见、情绪爆发淡化了客观现实。该论文明确探讨了印度最南端喀拉拉邦私人频道 YouTube 平台上一段信息娱乐视频中记录的公众评论。采用案例研究的方法来分析数字公共领域话语的主题、潜台词和可见结构，数字公共领域是更大公共领域的一个子集。令人不安的是，调查结果揭示了公共领域碎片化的话语，其特点是单一维度的历史叙述、错误的论点、政治冷漠以及情感或浪漫化的诉求，所有这些都是后真相时代的典型症状。