Online Deliberation Complete. Towards a New Framework to Analyze and Explain Deliberation Online

• In Event: Social Media, Internet, and Political Deliberation

Abstract

This paper develops and tests a framework for the empirical analysis of online deliberation. It adopts a comprehensive perspective on online deliberation by considering three levels: the institutional design fostering deliberation (institutional input level), the standards of the communication process itself (communicative throughput level) and the expected benefits of deliberation (productive outcome level). Every level addressed in the framework is both rooted in deliberative theory and complemented by empirical findings. Testing the framework in a case study on the online deliberation of new PhD guidelines at a faculty shows that it is workable for empirical research. Analyzing 435 comments and an online survey completed by 230 participants, the case study shows that if deliberative standards at the institutional input level are met, there is considerable deliberative quality at the level of communicative throughput and expected outcomes could emerge.

Author

• Dennis Michael Friess, University of Duesseldorf