Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement

Abstract

Deliberation is considered to produce positive effects on public opinion, in that it exposes participants to alternative perspectives and rational arguments. However, whereas benefits of face-to-face deliberation have been supported by many empirical studies, the effects of online deliberation remain unclear to date. This research compares the effects of online and face-to-face deliberation in experimental settings. A theoretical review of computer-mediated communication and deliberative democracy suggests that online deliberation is not necessarily inferior to face-to-face deliberation. An experiment was conducted to compare the relative outcomes of a deliberation performed in face-to-face and computer-mediated settings. The results suggest that both online and face-to-face deliberation can increase participants' issue knowledge, political efficacy, and willingness to participate in politics.

Online Political Debate: Motivating Factors and Impact on Political Engagement

“…In our study, the majority of the participants reported that their participation in online political debate might strengthen their political engagement. This finding is in line with Min's conclusion that online deliberation may increase political efficacy and willingness to participate in politics [9]. Furthermore, our findings indicate how such increased willingness to engage politically may be explained.…”

“…Furthermore, online deliberation may strengthen political efficacy and willingness to participate in politics [9]. In our study, the majority of the participants reported that their participation in online political debate might strengthen their political engagement.…”

“…De Zúñiga, Jung, and Valenzuela [18] found strong correlations between online political engagement, offline political participation, civic engagement, and the use of social networking sites for news. An experimental study by Min [9] showed that online deliberation may increase the participants' sense of political efficacy and willingness to participate in politics.…”

Politische Deliberation online – Twitter als Element des politischen Diskurses

“…Aus einem Experiment mit 81 Studierenden, von denen einige online und andere offline miteinander bestimmte Themen deliberativ diskutieren sollten und anschließend darüber befragt wurden, schlussfolgert Min (2007): "The results support the hypotheses that both face-to-face and online deliberation will have positive impacts on the participants' issue knowledge, political efficacy, and willingness to participate in politics". Ferner stellt sie fest, dass Deliberation in der Onlineumgebung gegenüber Face-to-Face-Deliberation einige Vorteile mit sich bringt, zumal eine größere Anzahl von Diskutantinnen -unabhängig von geografischen Limitationen -teilnehmen kann.…”

CommentaryMediating the Public Sphere Democratic Deliberation, Communication Gaps and the Personalization of Politics

“…While some barriers to deliberation may be reduced, others come to the fore including play with identity and confl ictual behavior. While some studies in this area continue to work with the framework of rational-critical deliberation there is contradictory evidence as to whether online and offl ine deliberation yields increases in participants' knowledge, political effi cacy, and willingness to participate in politics (Min, 2007). There is a growing body of research on e-democracy but this rarely focuses on who participates or what the consequences of such deliberation online may be.…”