Promoting online deliberation quality: cognitive cues matter

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the theory and practice of e-participation, looking specifically at ways to enhance the deliberative quality of political discussions in online forums. Building on theories of information processing and social norms, we suggest that particular visual banners may be integrated in an online forum, and serve as cues that prime participants to think about the context as a place of public deliberation. In turn, we hypothesize that these cues would promote the deliberative quality of the discussion. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a controlled experiment where cues were integrated as visuals banners alongside the content of an online discussion forum. Content analysis of forum comments (N = 476) included measures for reasoned opinion expression as well as indicators of listening and respecting others’ opinions. Findings support the study's hypotheses that deliberative cues matter for online deliberation. We discuss the findings and outline directions for future research.

Keywords:

• online forums
• online deliberation
• cues
• e-government
• e-democracy
• information processing

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Center for the Study of New Media, Society and Politics at Ariel University. The authors thank research assistants Dan Tiomkin, Erez Hadar and Yonit Hadad, for their help in conducting the experiment, and Ori Tenenboim for his help in the coding.

Notes on contributors

Edith Manosevitch is a lecturer in the School of Communication at Netanya Academic College in Israel. She earned her doctoral degree in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington in Seattle, and has served as a research associate at The Kettering Foundation. Her research focuses on democratic theory and practice, and online communication. She serves on the editorial board of Journal of Pubic Deliberation. Her research has been published in journals such as New Media and Society and International Journal of Public Opinion research. [email: [email protected]]

Nili Steinfeld is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a lecturer at the School of Communication at Ariel University in Israel. Her research focuses on online privacy, e-participation, and deliberation, and users’ behavior. As a software engineer, she integrates technology and new software development in her research. [email: [email protected]]

Azi Lev-On is the chair of the School of Communication at Ariel University in Israel. Lev-On's studies explore behaviors and collective action in computer-mediated environments, employing a variety of methods such as link analysis, surveys, and laboratory experiments. [email: [email protected]]

Notes

1. Researchers were granted permission from the Ministry for Improving Public Services to reproduce the site and use the template, logo, and slogan for experimentation.

2. Demographics: Diverse: 72% female, 28% married, 61% ages 18–24; True: 87% female, 33% married, 33% ages 18–24; and Control: 71% female, 24% married, 47% 18–24.

3. One coder coded the sample. A second coder coded 10% of the sample (n = 50 comments) in order to determine inter-coder reliability levels for each measure. Agreement rates after correcting for chance using Scott's pi (Scott, 1955) were as follows: relevance 81%, expressed opinion 76%, reason 95%, reason in favor 91%, reason against 90%, acknowledge 94%, acknowledge-agree 94%, acknowledge disagree 94%, and acknowledge-other 81%.