Deliberating Environmental Policy Issues: Comparing the Learning Potential of Online and Face‐To‐Face Discussions on Climate Change

Abstract

To what extent is political participation deepened and enriched by the Internet? Is the Internet more inclusive—especially towards the young—than traditional forms of participation requiring physical contact? Do people learn more by discussing on the Internet—and especially in online political forums—than by deliberating face‐to‐face? We aim to answer these questions by presenting the results of research based on the observation of a deliberative experience that allowed both online and face‐to‐face participation, namely the IDEAL‐EU project, carried out by the Tuscany (Italy), Catalonia (Spain), and Poitou‐Charentes (France) regions. IDEAL‐EU was aimed at involving young people—between ages 14 and 30—to discuss the issue of climate change in order to produce a report to be handed to the President of the European Parliament Commission on Climate Change. It first consisted in online discussion forums, and then in an electronic town meeting organized in the three regions' capitals in November 2008. This town meeting involved both keypad voting and face‐to‐face discussions in small groups. The comparison of these two stages of the experience allows evaluation of the respective effects of online and face‐to‐face political discussions on young participants' political knowledge. Using content analysis of websites, direct observation of the assembly, and interviews and questionnaires completed by both online and assembly participants, we evaluate the respective effects of these different forms of civic engagement for actors' perceived level of knowledge on climate change and on their political competence more generally.

Administrative traditions and citizen participation in public policy: a comparative study of France, Germany, the UK and Norway

“…Moreover, the effectiveness of citizen participation initiatives, such as internet consultations, at the local level has been critiqued (Talpin and Wojcik 2010). Therefore, despite the salience of recent decentralization reforms, we anticipate that less importance will be accorded to citizen participation methods in France, in part, due to its Napoleonic tradition of administration.…”

Distributed Discussion: An Integrated eParticipation Model for Engaging Young People in Technology Policy

“…It included online discussion forums, followed by an electronic town meeting, held in three EU cities at once, in November 2008. The town meeting involved keypad voting and face-toface discussions in small groups (Talpin and Wojcik, 2010). The method was inspired by America Speaks 21 st Century Town Meeting 7 and other EU precedents.…”

Editorial

“…The next article looks at online deliberation in Italy, Spain, and France, investigating the question of whether political participation is enriched by the Internet, particularly for young people. Talpin and Wojcik (2010) carry out a systematic comparison of the individual effects of online and face-to-face deliberation, using data from the IDEAL-EU project, which was aimed at involving young people in discussion of climate change in both online and offline forums. They find that both types of deliberation seem to have a learning impact on actors, confirming previous research.…”

“…Sayre et al (2010) crawl and scrape from the web and use computerized content analysis in their comparison of online and offline media coverage. Talpin and Wojcik (2010) used a field survey combining direct observation of discussion groups, interviews and a participant questionnaire, and content analysis of website postings and face-to-face discussions. Both these articles use their chosen method to compare online and offline environments, something that Internet researchers need to become increasingly imaginative in doing, given the shift of so much of social and political life online.…”