Conversation is the soul of democracy: Expression effects, communication mediation, and digital media

Abstract

A sizable body of empirical evidence indicates political conversation—both face-to-face and online—drives participatory engagement. Digital, social, and mobile media provide new avenues and tools for political talk, with affordances that may be particularly conducive to expression effects—that is, the impact of message production on the sender. This essay contends that an emphasis on deliberative democracy has limited attention to the psychological implications of political expression and creative production via information technologies and digital media.