Towards a Transactional Approach to Understanding and Cultivating Deliberative Civic Participation

• In Event: Justice Outside the Classroom: Civic Participation, Protests, and Teaching

Abstract

This conceptual paper draws on Rosenblatt’s transactional theory of reading to propose adopting this approach to understanding online information behavior. The transactional model conceptualizes reading as interactions between the author, text, and reader. We contrast this approach with example studies that focus primarily on text characteristics or on reader characteristics and point to possible gaps in understanding. We further present illustrative examples of studies that examine interactions between text and reader to demonstrate the added value of a transactional approach. We posit that a transactional model can lead to more effective educational interventions to cultivate deliberative civic participation.

Authors

• Iris Tabak, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Josh L. Radinsky, University of Illinois at Chicago