Summary
Contents
Subject index
“Professor Gastil has been a leading voice in the deliberative democracy movement for the last 15 years, and with this book he has created a wonderful resource that adeptly captures the broad, valuable work being done both inside and outside academia concerning public deliberation and political communication. I hope this book will help spark a whole new generation of courses focused on this critical topic.” –Martín Carcasson,Colorado State University
The act of deliberation is the act of reflecting carefully on a matter and weighing the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions to a problem. It aims to arrive at a decision or judgment based not only on facts and data but also on values, emotions, and other less technical considerations. Though a solitary individual can deliberate, it more commonly means making decisions together, as a small group, an organization, or a nation. Political Communication and Deliberation takes a unique approach to the field of political communication by viewing key concepts and research through the lens of deliberative democratic theory. This is the first text to argue that communication is central to democratic self-governance primarily because of its potential to facilitate public deliberation. Thus, it offers political communication instructors a new perspective on familiar topics, and it provides those teaching courses on political deliberation with their first central textbook. This text offers students practical theory and experience, teaching them skills and giving them a more direct understanding of the various subtopics in public communication.
Companion Web site!
A dedicated Web site at http://www.ideliberate.org inventories everything that might be useful for instructors using Political Communication and Deliberation in their courses. Syllabi suggestions show how to use the book when teaching on a semester - or a quarter-long course, as well as a set of classroom exercises and larger projects that have been used in previous courses. Also, a wiki and forum let instructors exchange teaching ideas, links, and new content to supplement each chapter.
Deliberation in the Jury Room
Deliberation in the Jury Room
SOURCE: iStockphoto. Used by permission.
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
Many Americans, sooner or later, will receive a summons from a city, county, or federal courthouse requesting that they appear for jury duty. Many of us dread such a summons and view jury duty as a burden. One study even suggested that compiling the summons list from the list of registered voters causes people to cancel their registration just to avoid the specter of jury duty.2 Serving on a jury, however, is one of the few—if not the only—opportunity most citizens ever have to practice deliberation as a representative of the government (or, as political ...
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