Page 100 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

representative set of normative conditions under which deliberation and civic engagement occurs

and included the concepts of universalism, inclusion, reason and rational discourse, agreement and

consensus, and political efficacy (Jacob, Cook, & Carpini, 2009) which could take into

consideration the impacts resulting from our interactions and felt by the greater community.

Ultimately, the normative approach aims to achieve consensus among the participants gathered to

participate in public dialogue processes; however, Gunderson (2000) and Young (1990) espouse a

different perspective of the aim of dialogue and deliberation. If we are to take the view of

democracy as a condition of social justice we need to take a look at the current state of affairs and

the situation or wearable paradigm ‘we’ currently as a society find ourselves in.

If we look at the technological aspect of dialogue since the introduction of the internet we

can see the online world supports a global ecosystem of social interaction. Modern life revolves

around the network, with its status updates, news feeds, comment chains, political advocacy,

omnipresent reviews, rankings and ratings. For its first few decades, this connected world was

idealized as an unfettered civic forum: a space where disparate views, ideas and conversations

could constructively converge. Its creators were inspired by the optimism underlying Stuart

Brand’s WELL in 1985, Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web and Electronic Frontier Foundation

co-founder John Perry Barlow’s 1996 “Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace.” They

expected the internet to create a level playing field for information sharing and communal activity

among individuals, businesses, other organizations and government actors.

One of the biggest challenges will be finding an appropriate balance between protecting
anonymity and enforcing consequences for the abusive behavior that has been allowed to
characterize online discussions for far too long.

-Bailey Poland

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