Affiliations: College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Jess Kropczynski, College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. E-mail:jkropczynski@ist.psu.edu
Abstract: The use of online forums to support civic discourses on
local politics has gained momentum, but it is not clear whether such online
conversations generate relevant outcomes for democratic decision-making.
Empirical studies in online deliberation suggest that online forums often
produce fragmented and unorganized public preferences when conversations
occur naturally without facilitation. However, it remains unknown as to what
degree an unfacilitated online forum can achieve desired quality. Here we
report a detailed content analysis on local newspaper forums to reveal the
patterns of progression towards the formation of public preferences in a
local planning context. Towards this goal, we developed a new coding scheme
that incorporates speech acts as indicators of deliberation quality and a
progressive five-phase model of deliberative decision-making. Using this
coding scheme, the selected newspaper forum was analyzed using a three-step
procedure. Our results pinpoint portions of the observed dialogue where
progress is not made towards advanced phases of deliberation due to failure
to develop common ground and joint assessment of alternative courses of
action.
