Deliberation is a form of discussion in which an individual or a group carefully examines a problem and considers proposals for solution that reflect a variety of perspectives with the aim of arriving at a well-reasoned solution. Mediated deliberation is the subtype of such discussion undertaken by means of mediated communication. Mediated deliberation was introduced by Benjamin I. Page who defined it as "discussions among government officials, experts, and professional commentators, which are conveyed to a broader audience through the mass media of communications" (1995, p. 245). Contemporary understandings extend beyond this focus on the transmission of political elite discussion and encompass any discussion enabled by media communication, including citizens as independent actors. Mass-mediated deliberation is the most normatively and empirically important type of mediated deliberation in modern large-scale societies, since-although it does not generally allow interaction between "senders" and audiences-it is the form of communication with the greatest potential for the political inclusion and engagement of citizens. Mediated deliberation through mass communication is a process whereby newspapers, online news outlets, and other media help the wider public understand and think through issues in at least a quasi-deliberative way. "Deliberativeness" is a gradual quality of any communication. It denotes the degree to which a communicative act, or series of acts, conforms to a catalog of deliberation principles like respecting all those affected by policies, the responsive exchange of "good" reasons, and so on (see below for a more detailed catalog). As a deliberation subtype, mediated deliberation has strong normative connotations and implies assumptions about the collective responsibilities of media producers and users. Although researchers have focused on mediated deliberation in public affairs media, the concept extends seamlessly to cultural media such as literary works, movies, and entertainment television.
Mediated deliberation in deliberative democratic theoryDeliberative democratic theory has paid relatively little attention to mediated deliberation. Paradoxically, given the importance of mediated modes of communication in modern societies, a focus on small-group nonmediated deliberation has prevailed in this literature. This development is due to a shift in interest moving towards questions of democratic deliberation rather than deliberative democracy on a broad scale