Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate

CHAPTER 1. COMPUTERS, CONVERSATION AND DEMOCRACY 11
a wide variety of topics. Some of the articles are related to the abortion issue,
although it seems that many are not. Some of the articles related to abortion are
concerned with the murders ten days ago, although many are not. Much of the
discussion is very animated, and some of the authors make very good points, but
many seem to make no point at all. You get the sense that you’re in a very large
room with many people talking at once. Some of the people are being listened
to and responded to; others seem to be only talking to themselves. It’s a conversation
unlike any you’ve ever encountered before – somewhere in between the
classic corner tavern, where regulars gather to talk amongst themselves with a
language and style inaccessible to outsiders (Anderson 1976, Liebow 1967), and
the “Special Orders” portion of the legislative day in the United States House of
Representatives, in which Members of Congress speak on a succession of unrelated
topics to a largely empty chamber and an anonymous television audience
watching on C-SPAN. Throughout your exploration, you are struck repeatedly by
the thought that the talk.abortion discussion represents a world unto itself. And
the very existence of this world raises questions about its patterns, structure and
nuances – and its impact or interaction with the other worlds of political discourse.
This world – the ongoing conversation created by the writers of messages in the
Usenet newsgroup talk.abortion – is the subject of this thesis. The operating
premise is that the interaction of various technological, economic and political
forces that make Usenet possible have combined to make possible a political conversation
with characteristics unlike any we’ve seen before. The challenge for
political science is understanding the structure of this discussion, and fitting it
within existing or new theoretical models which explain the nature and function
of political conversation.
1.2 Democracy and Discussion
Political conversation can be thought of as the foundation of political life and
political participation. “Participatory” theorists (Pateman 1970) of democracy,
who see the state as an instrument to identify and promote the common interests
of the public, and not merely as an entity to regulate the allocation of resources
to meet the private interests of individuals, seek to energize individuals as citizens
through conversation. Thus engaged, citizens will have the potential to see