Online and face-to-face deliberation are suitable when a policy is crafted regarding a class of issues that requires the engagement of a group of people to express diverse views thus, opening up discussions for different alternatives.

 

Deliberation is accomplished with active interactions although different issues requires different processes. Such processes can include deliberative listening, which entails active listening to a group of people and paraphrasing the information they provide in order to draw conclusions. This process is best suited when trying to understand the viewpoints of participants in the group and develop a feel of the participants expressions towards the issue. Another process includes deliberative dialogue which is based on a structured discussion that can either be done on a small group of people or through large community gatherings. With this process, moderators provide information on the issue at hand together with three or four approaches. This process involves listening to people’s perspectives and exploring new ideas. From there, conclusions might be drawn on the best course of action. A perfect example of this include the deliberation on ‘Who gets born? Pre-birth testing’ case study.

 

Seong-Jae Min states that deliberation is a critical part of decision making as it produces positive effects on public opinion and exposes participants to alternative perspectives and rational arguments. Therefore, deliberation can increase participants willingness to engage by giving them a voice and contribute to social cohesion.

 

To achieve a high level of citizen engagement and have them involved in decision making, one should consider the pros of cons of using online and face-to-face deliberation thus, learn from what works and what doesn’t.

 

Pros of online deliberation as compared to face-to-face deliberation:

 

  1. Diversity

 

A diverse group of people with shared interests on a controversial matter may find themselves more comfortable to engage through online deliberations than they might with face-to-face deliberations, as they may become more open to dissimilar views and feel less threatened by differences, according to Baek, Wojcieszak and Carpini. Hence, online deliberation provides for more diverse perspectives and might also prompt more positive experiences than with face-to-face deliberation.

 

  1. Quality of feedback

 

Online deliberation also offers more time for participants to think through each question or approach and provide thorough responses within a much longer time period as opposed to face-to-face deliberation. In addition, participants have the opportunity to surf through the internet to gain a much better understanding of an issue when there is a lack of information provided by the moderators. Online deliberation might also increase traditionalism toward a group norm as a result of online anonymity which leads to more perceived agreement.

 

Cons of online deliberation as compared to face-to-face deliberation

 

  1. Accessibility

 

It is relatively difficult to conduct an online deliberation with people or communities that have poor connectivity or have no access at all to the internet, or in some cases, have limited knowledge on the use of technology. There is also a possibility of participants who do have access to the internet to encounter technical difficulties at some point, making it somewhat difficult to express their views in a timely manner.

 

  1. Understanding participants’ views

 

Body language tells a lot about what a person is feeling. This is an advantage for moderators during face-to-face deliberation as it provides a much better understanding of the participants feelings whereas with online deliberation, there is speculation around misunderstanding or misreading of the views of others that can sometimes perceived as rude when it is actually not! Moreover, face-to-face guarantees that the views are being heard and tends to seek the attention of the whole group in comparison with online deliberation.

 

Conclusion

 

Even though technology has advanced the way people engage with each other, its limitations should not be ignored as it could impact the effectiveness of solutions developed through deliberations. It is therefore critical for those sponsoring the deliberation to understand the pros and cons of both online and face-to-face deliberation before articulating the best process in order to achieve what they want to achieve from deliberation.

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