The Tricky Bits of Studying Agreement and Disagreement in Online Deliberation : Current Research Directions and Methods in the Field of Political Communication

This article provides an overview of current studies dedicated to agreement and disagreement in online deliberation, and explains the relevance and challenges of exploring political disagreement in the digital sphere. Two dominant approaches to understanding disagreement that have existed since the early 2000s are defined that have provoked an acute scientific debate on the ambiguous impacts of disagreement on deliberative process and the participatory activity of citizens. A literature review outlines three main groups of works on the consequences of disagreement. This article contributes to the field of political communication in several ways. First, the current gaps in studying agreement and disagreement and their impact on political communication are indicated. Second, future Research venues are proposed according to detected lacunas. Third, an explanation is provided of why the issue of disagreement in the field of political communication is so complex to study. Fourth, the methodologies for analysing agreement and disagreement in online deliberation, including computational methods of textanalysis, are highlighted. Based on a methodological review, the parameters for agreement and disagreement analysis in political discussions are summarised and tested through empirical research.