Introduction: Why Investigate the Potential of Public Discussions in Media

The introduction lays out the thesis and the theoretical framework of the book, and its theoretical intervention. I motivate the project by stating the central role media-based communications have for contemporary societies. I argue for the importance of the project by summarizing the development of the scholarly discussion before and after 2016 as the year marking the move from optimism to pessimism regarding media-based public discussion. In the latter part of the Introduction, I summarize the contents of the book: the book starts with a definition and a characterization of media-based public discussion, continues with a first-person analysis of the phenomenon, and ends with an analysis of the potential of media-based public discussion as an informal educational situation.