Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context

The development of theories of citizens’ political communication has been hindered by a debate over whether such communication is best characterized as deliberative or non-deliberative. This article aims to overcome that impasse with a new account of citizens’ political communication informed by the...

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Main Authors: Michael Neblo, Robert Richards Jr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Westminster Press 2022-04-01
Series:Journal of Deliberative Democracy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/941/
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author Michael Neblo
Robert Richards Jr
author_facet Michael Neblo
Robert Richards Jr
author_sort Michael Neblo
collection DOAJ
description The development of theories of citizens’ political communication has been hindered by a debate over whether such communication is best characterized as deliberative or non-deliberative. This article aims to overcome that impasse with a new account of citizens’ political communication informed by theories of message production and sense-making: the goals–sense-making–justification (GSJ) model. This model holds that citizens’ political-communicative behavior is influenced by multiple goals and cognitive plans, which generally vary in different contexts. This variation helps to explain why citizens’ informal political discussions during non-election periods rarely feature reason-giving—and so can be understood as non-deliberative—whereas such discussions during major-election campaigns often feature the reason-giving that is characteristic of deliberation. Moreover, the model demonstrates how cognitive plans developed in informal political discussions over repeated major-election cycles enable citizens to engage competently in reason-giving during formal deliberations.
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spelling doaj-art-63b32ff71d1d4e35914180056e5b91b32025-08-20T03:41:54ZengUniversity of Westminster PressJournal of Deliberative Democracy2634-04882022-04-0118210.16997/10.16997/jdd.941Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in ContextMichael Neblo0Robert Richards Jr1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4248-1220The Ohio State UniversityOpen Governance Lab, University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public ServiceThe development of theories of citizens’ political communication has been hindered by a debate over whether such communication is best characterized as deliberative or non-deliberative. This article aims to overcome that impasse with a new account of citizens’ political communication informed by theories of message production and sense-making: the goals–sense-making–justification (GSJ) model. This model holds that citizens’ political-communicative behavior is influenced by multiple goals and cognitive plans, which generally vary in different contexts. This variation helps to explain why citizens’ informal political discussions during non-election periods rarely feature reason-giving—and so can be understood as non-deliberative—whereas such discussions during major-election campaigns often feature the reason-giving that is characteristic of deliberation. Moreover, the model demonstrates how cognitive plans developed in informal political discussions over repeated major-election cycles enable citizens to engage competently in reason-giving during formal deliberations.https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/941/sense-makingmessage productionpolitical talkpolitical communicationdemocratic deliberation
spellingShingle Michael Neblo
Robert Richards Jr
Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
Journal of Deliberative Democracy
sense-making
message production
political talk
political communication
democratic deliberation
title Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
title_full Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
title_fullStr Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
title_full_unstemmed Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
title_short Active Is as Active Does: Deliberative and Non-Deliberative Political Communication in Context
title_sort active is as active does deliberative and non deliberative political communication in context
topic sense-making
message production
political talk
political communication
democratic deliberation
url https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/941/
work_keys_str_mv AT michaelneblo activeisasactivedoesdeliberativeandnondeliberativepoliticalcommunicationincontext
AT robertrichardsjr activeisasactivedoesdeliberativeandnondeliberativepoliticalcommunicationincontext