Suchergebnisse

This paper details a content analysis scheme to measure the quality of political deliberation in face-to-face and online groups. Much of deliberation research studies the outcomes of deliberation, but there has been a lack of analysis of what groups actually do when tasked with deliberating. The coding scheme was developed out of the theoretical literature on deliberation and further enhanced by the empirical literature on small groups, deliberation, online political talk, and conversation analysis. Strict standards for creating coding schemes were followed to ensure a valid and reliable coding process. Results of the coding of deliberations on the topic of public schools suggest that participants produced a fairly high level of reasoned opinion expression, but not necessarily on the topic which they were asked to deliberate. It is hoped that the code scheme can be utilized by practitioners and researchers of political and social deliberations.

This paper details a content analysis scheme to measure the quality of political deliberation in face-to-face and online groups. Much of deliberation research studies the outcomes of deliberation, but there has been a lack of analysis of what groups actually do when tasked with deliberating. The coding scheme was developed out of the theoretical literature on deliberation and further enhanced by the empirical literature on small groups, deliberation, online political talk, and conversation analysis. Strict standards for creating coding schemes were followed to ensure a valid and reliable coding process. Results of the coding of deliberations on the topic of public schools suggest that participants produced a fairly high level of reasoned opinion expression, but not necessarily on the topic which they were asked to deliberate. It is hoped that the code scheme can be utilized by practitioners and researchers of political and social deliberations.

The implications of Internet voting are explored with attention given to the meaning of voting & whether it is important for people to enter a physical, public space to vote. AZ's recent experiment with Internet voting raised questions as to whether it could be accomplished without fear of fraud & whether it increased voter participation, & these questions as well as arguments for & against Internet voting are discussed. It is concluded that the US is experiencing a shift from citizen participation in the public sphere to citizen existence within a "private world of culture consumption" (Habermas 1989 [1962]). The majority of the population unquestioningly accepts the news & products of the mass media, while elites make decisions behind closed doors. 13 References. L. A. Hoffman