political discussion paper

Have any political junkies out there ever wondered how the Internet is affecting political debate and discussion? I did, and apparently, so have quite a few other researchers. These are a couple of the most interesting discoveries I made while writing a research paper on this topic...

Political talk happens almost everywhere online. In the same way you might strike up a conversation about health care with your coworkers or classmates, you might end up debating the bank bailout on a news web page, your friend's blog, or even on the wall of that Facebook page devoted to chocolate...

You are probably more likely to be exposed to a diverse political opinion in your chocolate Facebook group than you would be in a political Facebook group. The logic? Political and religious groups tend to be more homogeneous than other interest groups. Think: everybody loves chocolate; not everybody loves Ron Paul.

If social networks aren't your thing, you can check out some of the successful political deliberation forums online. One great example: The E-Democracy Forum, located at http://forums.e-democracy.org/. The Minnesota discussion groups on this site were some of the earliest and most successful attempts at "e-participation" way back in 1994.

So go put on your comfy pajamas, have some chocolate, and enjoy the fact that you can fulfill at least part of your civic duty from the comfort of your couch.

Curious to learn more? Start with the following sources:

Albrecht, S. (2006). Who's voice is heard in online deliberation? A study of participation and representation in political debates on the Internet. Information, Communication, & Society, (9)1, 62-82

Feezel, J. T., Conway, M., & Guerrero, M. (2009, September). Facebook is...fostering political engagement. A study of online social networking groups and offline participation. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, Ontario, CA.

Mutz, D. C. (2002). The consequences of cross-cutting networks for political participation. American Journal of Political Science, 46(4), 838-855

Stromer-Galley, J. (2002). New voices in the public sphere: A comparative analysis of interpersonal and online political talk. Javnost, (9)2, 23-41.

Stromer-Galley, J., & Muhlberger, P. (2009). Agreement and disagreement in group deliberation: Effects on deliberation satisfaction, future engagement, and decision legitimacy. Political Communication, (26)2, 173-192.