▪ Abstract  Many theorists have long extolled the virtues of public deliberation as a crucial component of a responsive and responsible democracy. Building on these theories, in recent years practitioners—from government officials to citizen groups, nonprofits, and foundations—have increasingly devoted time and resources to strengthening citizen engagement through deliberative forums. Although empirical research has lagged behind theory and practice, a body of literature has emerged that tests the presumed individual and collective benefits of public discourse on citizen engagement. We begin our review of this research by defining “public deliberation”; we place it in the context of other forms of what we call “discursive participation” while distinguishing it from other ways in which citizens can voice their individual and collective views on public issues. We then discuss the expectations, drawn from deliberative democratic theory, regarding the benefits (and, for some, pitfalls) assumed to derive from public deliberation. The next section reviews empirical research as it relates to these theoretical expectations. We conclude with recommendations on future directions for research in this area.

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Recent research findings about whether mass media reports influence risk-related judgments have not been consistent. One reconciliation of the differing findings is the impersonal impact hypothesis. That hypothesis suggests that media impact occurs with societal level judgments about general problem importance or frequency but not with judgments about personal risks. Three studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. The results of the studies support the impersonal impact hypothesis by suggesting that personal and societal level judgments are distinct and that media reports exert their primary influence on societal, not personal judgments. Although media reports influenced judgments about societal risks but not about risks to one's self under the conditions examined in the present research, personal judgments may be affected under other conditions as yet unexamined in depth. This article concludes by theorizing about what those conditions might be.Recent studies examining the impact of mass media presentations of crime and violence on judgments of the risk of being a crime victim have been inconsistent (see

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