Participation and deliberation: a case study of readers’ comments to news stories on the Brazilian presidential campaign

The Internet has created new “dialogical spaces” (Oblak, 2005) where issues of common concern can be discussed, serving to democratize the public sphere. As a potential deliberative section and a civic forum, readers’ comments in newspapers’ websites constitute a locus for public debate and ideas ex...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Silva, Marisa Torres da (author)
Format: article
Language:por
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.23(2013).1616
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:journals.uminho.pt:article/978
Description
Summary:The Internet has created new “dialogical spaces” (Oblak, 2005) where issues of common concern can be discussed, serving to democratize the public sphere. As a potential deliberative section and a civic forum, readers’ comments in newspapers’ websites constitute a locus for public debate and ideas exchange provided by the mainstream media. As a case study, this article intends to assess the quality of audience participation in online news sites, by analysing the readers’ comments in the news about the Brazilian presidential campaign (September-November 2010) in the online versions of two Portuguese newspapers.