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  • Essay / The relationship between various contextual factors and...

    Many communication theories, as well as various social science disciplines, have studied the multifaceted relationship between various communicative engagements and political or civic participation in light of democracies deliberative. As Delli Carpini and colleagues note (Delli Carpini, Cook, & Jacobs, 2004, p. 316), “at least one tradition within democratic theory has long designated public deliberation as the cornerstone of participatory democracy and representative government.” Here, public deliberation largely refers to various forms of everyday political conversation. “By 'political conversation' we mean all kinds of political speeches, discussions or arguments as long as they are voluntarily carried out by free citizens, without any specific goal or predetermined agenda” (Kim, Wyatt and Katz, 1999, p. 362). Numerous studies highlight that daily political conversations have a significant impact on public life. Political conversation improves political knowledge (Cappella, Price and Nir, 2002; Eveland and Hively, 2009; Eveland et al., 2005; Kim et al., 1999), the quality of opinion (Kim and Kim, 2008; Kim et al., 1999), and the development or reflection of a problem (Mcleod, Scheufele and Moy, 1999; Cho et al., 2009). Furthermore, political conversation also contributes to individuals' political tolerance and social trust (Huckfeldt, Johnson, & Sprague, 2004), community involvement (Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006), and ultimately participation policy (Cho et al., 2009; Delli Carpini et al., 2004; Rojas, Shah and Friedland, 2011; Shah et al., 2005; Wyatt, Katz and Kim, 2000). In essence, “political conversation is indeed the heart of deliberative democracy” (Kim et al., 1999, p. 380). Political conversations and civic participation...... middle of article....... V. and Friedland, LA (2011). A communicative approach to social capital. Journal of Communication, 61, 689-712. Shah, DV, Cho, J., Eveland, WP and Kwak, N. (2005). Information and expression in the digital age: modeling the effects of the Internet on civic participation. Communication Research, 32, 531-565. Shah, DV, Mcleod, JM and Yoon, S. (2001). Communication, context and community: an exploration of print, broadcast and internet influences. Communication Research, 28, 464-506. Slater, M.D., Snyder, L., & Hayes, A.F. (2006). Multilevel thinking and modeling: The potential contribution of multilevel modeling to communication theory and research. Human Communication Research, 32, 375-384. Wyatt, R., Katz, E., & Kim, J. (2000). Connecting the Spheres: Political and Personal Conversation in Public and Private Spaces. Communication log, 50, 71-92.