Ideal Online Discussant and Audience : Understanding Political Social Media through Roles and Rules

Many researchers work to design pro-democratic systems and interventions, but they rarely engage with users’ ideals for political discussions. We examine these ideals through a purposive sample of Finnish students. We identify rules that people linked to the roles bound up with these ideals ‘should’ follow and the sorts of qualities aligned with them. Our qualitative analysis pinpointed four qualities of the ideal discussant: being committed, competent, sincere, and accountable. Also, three traits of the audience envisioned for them proved prominent – members of this ideal audience seek out political discussions that feature those fitting the ideal-discussant role, strive to avoid merely strengthening their pre-existing views, and attempt to reward or punish those meshing with or contradicting the ideal, respectively. The discussion concludes with a reflection on conditions in which these qualities may conflict with broader ideals for discussion or with each other and how design could account for such conflicts.