Habermas

"All Together Now!: Publics and Participation in American Idol" applies Habermas's concept of the public sphere to a popular/mass cultural text. The funny thing is that this scholarly essay is written by Simon Cowell.

Wait.

It's written by a Simon Cowell:

Simon Cowell is a doctoral candidate in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, England. His PhD thesis examines the relation between trauma and pleasure in the television medical drama. He is no relation of the "other" Simon Cowell, music producer and much-maligned British judge on American Idol.

Strange!