D_06 Transformation of the Societal Order of Deliberation

Sections:: Hamburg
Disciplines:: Communication and Media Studies
Belongs to:: Dynamics of mediatization (D: Cultural Dynamics of Cohesion)

Abstract

Social cohesion depends on processes of mutual understanding. This applies both to interactions between individuals and to exchanges between political movements, interest groups, or broader societal camps. Digital media have fundamentally altered the conditions under which such understanding takes place. They shape how we discuss socially relevant issues and how we seek solutions to collective problems. This work package examines these transformations of our societal order of deliberation.

In recent years, the conditions for societal deliberation have changed profoundly. Some people, for example, increasingly doubt that journalism and science still provide reliable knowledge about the world and therefore turn to alternative sources of information. Because it has become easy to share personal opinions widely, disinformation spreads more readily. At the same time, algorithmic recommendation systems on many social media platforms tend to promote polarization and confrontation. Under these conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult to conduct balanced debates and to reach shared understandings about how societal problems should be addressed.

This work package investigates how these developments affect social cohesion. It brings together its research under the concept of a “societal order of deliberation.” This concept refers to structures that lend stability and meaning to processes of understanding. These include legal frameworks that regulate the freedoms and limits of public debate, as well as the organizational and financial conditions under which media organizations operate. They also encompass expectations, norms, and unwritten rules that guide participants in public discussions. In addition, the technical architectures and affordances of social media platforms, AI-based tools, and other digital technologies form part of this order. To analyze these dynamics, the work package draws on research from communication and media studies, sociology, and political science. Within RISC, it cooperates closely with the Social Media Observatory and the Qualitative Panel.

The aim of this work package (WP) is to contribute theoretical and conceptual groundwork that helps address the guiding questions of Research Area D concerning the foundations and conditions of societal debates over knowledge, values, and identities. Using the concept of a “deliberative order,” the WP seeks to clarify how societal processes of contestation and understanding are structured. Within the focus on dynamics of mediatization, it reflects—primarily from a communication studies perspective—on the intertwined processes of media change and social change and, drawing on empirical findings from the Qualitative Panel and the Social Media Observatory, examines their implications for democratic cohesion.

Practices of deliberation among individuals, social groups, organizations, or entire societal spheres such as politics, science, or the media enable the generation of collectively shared bodies of knowledge, the identification of collectively relevant topics, problems, or goals, and the negotiation of collectively accepted paths toward their resolution or realization. We conceptualize the social framing of these practices as a “deliberative order.” This term refers, on the one hand, to the structures that provide societal deliberation with order—and thus with both trans-situational stability and internal meaning—and, on the other hand, to the practices and processes through which societal deliberation itself is ordered (which must be analytically distinguished from practices of deliberation proper).

The establishment and continuous innovation dynamics of digital media challenge the societal order of deliberation in several respects. In particular, the long largely uncontested epistemic authority of journalism and science is increasingly questioned. Collaborative arenas such as Wikipedia or social-media-based personal publics (for example, those of influencers) are characterized by different structures for the production, validation, and distribution of knowledge than journalism or science. Lower barriers to access public communication also facilitate the spread of disinformation. Moreover, it is already foreseeable that societal deliberation will change further as machines increasingly participate in communication processes, for example in the form of systems such as ChatGPT or digital voice assistants.

The transformation of the deliberative order also involves the emergence of new communicative figurations in core processes of societal deliberation—such as knowledge production, agenda-setting, problem identification, and the negotiation of collectively accepted solutions. Examples include meme communities or hashtag publics, which can only arise through the technical affordances of digital media. These formations are not merely expressions of changing practices and expectations of participation that point to shifting roles of communicators and audiences. They also manifest “connective action” as a mode of political participation in a narrower sense—one that challenges not only journalism and science, but also the functional system of politics itself.

Because these technologies and practices are equally available to extremist actors and other opponents of an open society, it is particularly important to understand the transformation of the societal order of deliberation and to reflect on its consequences for democratic cohesion. This work package therefore aims to provide a conceptual and theoretical contribution that will be discussed, refined, and empirically substantiated in dialogue with other work packages within Research Area D and related focus areas.