Modeling and Measuring Deliberation Online

2019 ◽  
pp. 320-349
Author(s):  
Nick Beauchamp
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
Argument Quality ◽  
The Core ◽  
Conceptual Structures ◽  
Online Deliberation ◽  
Meaningful Interaction

Online communication is often characterized as dominated by antagonism or groupthink, with little in the way of meaningful interaction or persuasion. This essay examines how one can detect and measure instances of more productive conversation online, considered through the lens of deliberative theory. It begins with an examination of traditional deliberative democracy, then explores how these concepts have been applied to online deliberation and by those studying interpersonal conversation in social media more generally. These efforts to characterize and measure deliberative quality have resulted in a myriad of criteria, with elaborate checklists that are often as superficial as they are complex. This essay instead proposes targeting what is arguably the core deliberative process—a mutual consideration of conceptually interrelated ideas—in order to distinguish the better from the worse and to construct better conceptual structures. The essay finishes by discussing two computational models of argument quality and interdependence as templates for richer, scalable, nonpartisan measures of deliberative discussion online.

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
Kai Spiekermann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
European Union ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Epistemic Democracy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Filter Bubbles

This chapter reflects on the election of Donald Trump and the vote of the British electorate in favour of ‘Brexit’ from the European Union. While we refrain from judging the outcomes of these votes, we do discuss concerns pertaining to the lack of truthfulness in both campaigns. After rehearsing the lies on which the Trump and Brexit campaigns were based, we consider different explanations as to why these campaigns were nevertheless successful, and where this leaves the argument for epistemic democracy. Particularly worrisome are tendencies towards ‘epistemic insouciance’, ‘epistemic malevolence’, and ‘epistemic agnosticism’. We also consider the problematic influence of social media in terms of echo chambers and filter bubbles. The core argument in favour of epistemic democracy is that the pooling of votes by majority rule has epistemically beneficial properties, assuming certain conditions. If these assumptions are not met, or are systematically corrupted, then epistemic democracy is under threat.

Creating Multiple Sites of Engagement for Music Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Jonathan Savage
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
The Core ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Meaningful Relationships ◽  
Mindful Teaching ◽  
Specific Technology

Music education exists in multiple spaces. Within formal approaches to music education in academic institutions, there has been an acknowledgment that more informal pedagogical approaches can be useful (as evidenced in the work of movements such as Musical Futures). However, constructive links between formal and informal contexts for music education remain difficult to navigate for many teachers. Within the United Kingdom, the newly defined roles for music education hubs have made some headway in recasting these relationships in a more productive direction. Similarly, social media has an important role to play in developing new relationships between key agencies within music education. Like any specific technology, there are positive affordances and more negative limitations to such approaches. People have a complex relationship with technology, but they are not gadgets! Lanier’s (2010) thesis argues strongly that recent cultural developments can deaden personal interaction, stifle genuine inventiveness, and change people. Within an educational setting, careful consideration needs to be given to the affordances and limitations of social media. For teachers and designers of learning spaces and opportunities, pedagogy should be underpinned by careful, mindful choices—including wise choices about the tools that teachers and students are using. It is about a focus on the core, asking: What is the key learning that this music lesson is facilitating? Is this tool the best one for the job? Does this tool or approach allow one to teach music musically? Done skillfully and conscientiously, social media can help develop collaborative approaches to music education that provide teachers with pedagogical strength and security. They result in mindful teaching and mindful learning that will last a lifetime. They can also help teachers develop meaningful relationships with students that help them make sense of their musical experiences in whatever context they have emerged through: a truly, “joined-up” approach to music education with the student at the core.

A critical appraisal of diversity in digital knowledge production: Segregated inclusion on YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110348
Author(s):  
Kaiping Chen ◽  
June Jeon ◽  
Yanxi Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Core ◽  
Inclusion Phenomenon ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Digital Knowledge

Diversity in knowledge production is a core challenge facing science communication. Despite extensive works showing how diversity has been undermined in science communication, little is known about to what extent social media augments or hinders diversity for science communication. This article addresses this gap by examining the profile and network diversities of knowledge producers on a popular social media platform—YouTube. We revealed the pattern of the juxtaposition of inclusiveness and segregation in this digital platform, which we define as “segregated inclusion.” We found that diverse profiles are presented in digital knowledge production. However, the network among these knowledge producers reveals the rich-get-richer effect. At the intersection of profile and network diversities, we found a decrease in the overall profile diversity when we moved toward the center of the core producers. This segregated inclusion phenomenon questions how inequalities in science communication are replicated and amplified in relation to digital platforms.

scholarly journals A computational reward learning account of social media engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Lindström ◽  
Martin Bellander ◽  
David T. Schultner ◽  
Allen Chang ◽  
Philippe N. Tobler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Social Media Engagement ◽  
Social Rewards

AbstractSocial media has become a modern arena for human life, with billions of daily users worldwide. The intense popularity of social media is often attributed to a psychological need for social rewards (likes), portraying the online world as a Skinner Box for the modern human. Yet despite such portrayals, empirical evidence for social media engagement as reward-based behavior remains scant. Here, we apply a computational approach to directly test whether reward learning mechanisms contribute to social media behavior. We analyze over one million posts from over 4000 individuals on multiple social media platforms, using computational models based on reinforcement learning theory. Our results consistently show that human behavior on social media conforms qualitatively and quantitatively to the principles of reward learning. Specifically, social media users spaced their posts to maximize the average rate of accrued social rewards, in a manner subject to both the effort cost of posting and the opportunity cost of inaction. Results further reveal meaningful individual difference profiles in social reward learning on social media. Finally, an online experiment (n = 176), mimicking key aspects of social media, verifies that social rewards causally influence behavior as posited by our computational account. Together, these findings support a reward learning account of social media engagement and offer new insights into this emergent mode of modern human behavior.

Effectiveness of Travel Social Media Influencers: A Case of Eco-Friendly Hotels

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728752110194
Author(s):  
Payal S. Kapoor ◽  
M. S. Balaji ◽  
Yangyang Jiang ◽  
Charles Jebarajakirthy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Federal Trade Commission ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Digital Marketing ◽  
Intention To Stay ◽  
Argument Quality ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Sustainability Practices ◽  
Tourism Service ◽  
Primary Channel

With social media becoming the primary channel for travelers to acquire travel-related information, tourism service providers are increasingly partnering with social media influencers (SMIs) as part of their digital marketing strategy. The present study investigates the effectiveness of SMIs by examining the role that two message factors—argument quality and sponsorship status—have on travelers’ perceptions of a hotel’s commitment to sustainability and their intention to stay at the hotel. Results from four studies show that when eco-friendly hotels sponsor SMIs, an attribute-value message is more effective than a simple recommendation message in influencing travelers’ perceptions and intentions. Given the latest Federal Trade Commission regulations regarding sponsorship disclosure practices, the findings offer valuable insights for tourism providers using SMIs. The study findings suggest that SMIs should create sponsored messages that provide rational and objective information about the hotel’s sustainability practices to stimulate travelers’ related cognitions and persuade them to patronize the hotel.

scholarly journals A militant defence of democracy: A few replies to my critics

2020 ◽  
pp. 019145372097472
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Core ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Proper Role

In this essay, I address some questions and challenges brought about by the contributors to this special issue on my book ‘ Democracy without Shortcuts’. First, I clarify different aspects of my critique of deep pluralist conceptions of democracy to highlight the core incompatibilities with the participatory conception of deliberative democracy that I defend in the book. Second, I distinguish different senses of the concept of ‘blind deference’ that I use in the book to clarify several aspects and consequences of my critique of epistocratic conceptions of democracy and their search for ‘expertocratic shortcuts’. This in turn helps me briefly address the difficult question of the proper role of experts in a democracy. Third, I address potential uses of empowered minipublics that I did not discuss in the book and highlight some reasons to worry about their lack of accountability. This discussion in turn leads me to address the difficult question of which institutions are best suited to represent the transgenerational collective people who are supposed to own a constitutional project. Finally, I address some interesting suggestions for how to move the book’s project forward.

scholarly journals The Importance of Belonging: A Study About Positioning Processes in Youths’ Online Communication

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402098886
Author(s):  
Liselotte Eek-Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Gender Category ◽  
Analysis Process ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
Reciprocal Processes

The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge of young peoples’ communication in social media. A total of 32 boys and girls aged 14 to 15 years old, from two schools in Sweden, participated in this study. A hermeneutic interpretation process formed the basis of the analysis process. The data were thematized based on patterns found throughout the material. Theoretical perspectives concerning normalization processes related to the use of language were connected to the data to deepen the understanding of themes and patterns. The result shows that there is an ongoing negotiation with reciprocal processes in which both boys and girls have lots of reference points to consider, when they interact online. There are social norms and rules related to the online arena itself, as well as normative expectations connected to gender orders. The gender category is intertwined with sexuality and group hierarchies, which give the youth different power positions to act online.

Le Bon’s crowd psychology and post-truth

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Dusko Prelevic
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Crowd Psychology ◽  
Philosophical Community

The phenomenon of post-truth, in which truth (or facts or the best scientific evidence) is brushed aside in public debates, has recently caught the eye of many philosophers, who typically see it as a threat to deliberative democracy. In this paper, it is argued that Gustave Le Bon?s remarks on crowd psychology, which had been very popular in past (and brushed aside later on), might be relevant for a better understanding of psychological mechanisms that lead to post-truth. According to Le Bon, crowds are often irrational, whereas those who try to convince them to do something should use specific techniques of persuasion, such as affirmation, repetition, contagion and prestige, of which the last one can be undermined either by fiasco (the fastest way), or by critique (a bit slower, but nonetheless effective way). It is the age of posttruth that goes towards the neutralization of any critique (Le Bon himself considered such neutralization devastating for democratic societies), which has been, according to some authors, affected to a great extent by technological innovations in media, such as social media that some authors consider anti-social due to their negative impact on society. I argue that Le Bon?s insights might be useful to members of scientific and philosophical community in their attempts to eliminate the spreading of quasi-scientific views in public discourse.

scholarly journals Does context really collapse in social media interaction?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malgorzata Szabla ◽  
Jan Blommaert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Normal Modes ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Interactional Sociolinguistics ◽  
Polish People ◽  
Media Interaction ◽  
Networked Publics

Abstract‘Context collapse’ (CC) refers to the phenomenon widely debated in social media research, where various audiences convene around single communicative acts in new networked publics, causing confusion and anxiety among social media users. The notion of CC is a key one in the reimagination of social life as a consequence of the mediation technologies we associate with the Web 2.0. CC is undertheorized, and in this paper we intend not to rebuke it but to explore its limits. We do so by shifting the analytical focus from “online communication” in general to specific forms of social action performed, not by predefined “group” members, but by actors engaging in emerging kinds of sharedness based on existing norms of interaction. This approach is a radical choice for action rather than actor, reaching back to symbolic interactionism and beyond to Mead, Strauss and other interactionist sociologists, and inspired by contemporary linguistic ethnography and interactional sociolinguistics, notably the work of Rampton and the Goodwins. We apply this approach to an extraordinarily complex Facebook discussion among Polish people residing in The Netherlands – a set of data that could instantly be selected as a likely site for context collapse. We shall analyze fragments in detail, showing how, in spite of the complications intrinsic to such online, profoundly mediated and oddly ‘placed’ interaction events, participants appear capable of ‘normal’ modes of interaction and participant selection. In fact, the ‘networked publics’ rarely seem to occur in practice, and contexts do not collapse but expand continuously without causing major issues for contextualization. The analysis will offer a vocabulary and methodology for addressing the complexities of the largest new social space on earth: the space of online culture.

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