Online deliberation
Online deliberation is a broad term used to describe many forms of non-institutional, institutional and experimental online discussions.
Although the Internet and social media have fostered discursive participation and deliberation online through computer-mediated communication,[2] the academic study of online deliberation started in the early 2000s.[3]
Effective support for online deliberation
A range of studies have suggested that group size, volume of communication, interactivity between participants, message characteristics, and social media characteristics can impact online deliberation.[4][2] and that democratic deliberation varies across platforms. For example, news forums have been shown to have the highest degree of deliberation followed by news websites, and then Facebook.[5] Differences in the effectiveness of platforms as supporting deliberation has been attributed based on numerous factors such as moderation, the availability of information, and focusing on a well defined topic.[5]
A limited number of studies have explored the extent to which online deliberation can produce similar results to traditional, face-to-face
Research on online deliberation suggests that there are five key design considerations that will affect the quality of dialogue: asynchronous communication vs synchronous communication, post hoc moderation vs pre-moderation, empowering spaces vs un-empowering spaces, asking discrete questions vs broad questions, and the quality of information.[8] Other scholars have suggested that successful online deliberation follows four central rules: discussions must be inclusive, rational-critical, reciprocal and respectful.[1]
In general, online deliberation require participants to be able to work together comfortably in order to make the best possible deliberations which can often require rules and regulations that help members feel comfortable with one another.[9]
Challenges
Researchers have questioned the utility of online deliberation as an extension of the public sphere, arguing the idea that online deliberation is no less beneficial than face-to-face interaction.[2] Computer-mediated discourse is deemed impersonal, and is found to encourage online incivility.[10] Furthermore, users who participate in online discussions about politics are found to make comments only in groups that agree with their own views,[11] indicating the possibility that online deliberation mainly promotes motivated reasoning and reinforces preexisting attitudes.
Related Disciplines
Scholarly research into online deliberation is
See also
- Argument map
- Collaborative software
- Computer-mediated communication
- Computer supported cooperative work
- Deliberation
- Deliberative democracy
- Deliberative opinion poll
- E-democracy
- E-participation
- Online consultation
- Online participation
- Online research communities
- Public sphere
- Social media
- Web annotation
- Popular tools:
- Loomio
- DemocracyOS
- LiquidFeedback
References
- ^ a b Bächtiger, A., Dryzek, John S., Mansbridge, Jane J., & Warren, Mark. (2018). The Oxford handbook of deliberative democracy (First ed., Oxford handbooks online). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ ISSN 0747-5632.
- ISBN 978-0-19-989928-9.
Online deliberation is a relatively new field. Although the concept of public deliberation via electronic means was discussed as early as the 1970s,25 and there was some early empirical work on deliberation online in the 1980s and 1990s,26 studies of structured or public online deliberation appear to have begun with work by Stephen Coleman and colleagues,27 Lincoln Dahlberg,28 and Vincent Price29 around a decade ago.
- ISSN 0021-9916.
- ^ a b Esau, Katharina, Friess, Dennis, & Eilders, Christiane. (2017). Design Matters! An Empirical Analysis of Online Deliberation on Different News Platforms. Policy and Internet, 9(3), 321-342.
- CiteSeerX 10.1.1.493.3597
- .
- ^ Friess, Dennis, & Eilders, Christiane. (2015). A Systematic Review of Online Deliberation Research. Policy and Internet, 7(3), 319-339.
- ^ Noveck, Beth (2009). Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. Brookings Institution Press.
- .
- OCLC 38879177.
- ^ .
External links
- Online deliberation resources
- Developing and Using Online Tools for Deliberative Democracy - the first conference on online deliberation, Carnegie Mellon University (June 2003)
- Online Deliberation 2005 / DIAC-2005 - the Second Conference on Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice, Stanford University (May 2005)
- Tools for Participation: Collaboration, Deliberation, and Decision Support (DIAC-2008/OD2008) - the Third Conference on Online Deliberation, University of California, Berkeley (June 2008)
- The Fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation - University of Leeds (June 30-July 2, 2010)
- Online Deliberation: A Review of The Literature, Bang The Table, 7 Aug. 2017.
- Online Deliberation Online Deliberation | Participedia.
- Decidim- Free Open-Source participatory democracy software