Assessing the quality of online dialogue: repairing deliberative norm violations

Goddard, Alexander (2024) Assessing the quality of online dialogue: repairing deliberative norm violations. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

The quality of online dialogue matters for society. Deliberative theory argues that high-quality online dialogue requires participant adherence to social norms (e.g., civility). However, this model does not account for instances of high-quality dialogue containing norm violations (e.g., incivility). To address this problem, the thesis introduces the norm repair model, which argues that high-quality online dialogue requires norm adherence, reflecting the deliberative model, and norm repair, extending the deliberative model. Norm repairs are defined as the sequence of actions performed by participants and content moderators for addressing norm violations. I derive the model through four research articles. Article 1 systematically reviewed measures of online dialogue quality, finding that essential features of dialogue (e.g., misunderstandings) are absent from the deliberative model. Article 2 introduces a method for developing and validating text classifiers. Through a case study, the article found that misunderstandings in online dialogue are more appropriately measured through conversational repairs (the sequence of actions used to address misunderstandings in dialogue). Article 3 finds that online and offline repair initiations are similarly distributed, supporting the goal of integrating repairs and the deliberative model. Article 4 involved interviews with Reddit moderators on how dialogue quality is maintained in practice to explore alternative perspectives on the problem of norm violations. This article evaluated the deliberative model against the interview responses, identifying that moderators were less concerned with norm violations than the intentions behind them. They reported on processes of identifying intent behind violations (e.g., through warnings), providing opportunities for participants to rectify their behaviour. This reported process led to the abduction of the norm repair model extension to the deliberative model, the primary contribution of the thesis. Without norm repair, participants could not grow from their norm violations and engage productively in future online dialogues.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Alexander Goddard
Library of Congress subject classification:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Sets:	Departments > Psychological and Behavioural Science
Supervisor:	Gillespie, Alex
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4772

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