Talk or conversation? Dimensions of interpersonal discussion and their implications for participatory democracy

Discussion among citizens has long been identified as a necessary condition for a healthy and functioning democracy. This study uses telephone survey data to examine empirically Michael Schudson's assumption that discussion i s not singular, but actually a concept involving social conversation and po litical talk.(1) It operationalizes the concepts of political talk and conv ersation and examines their implications for indicators of democratic citiz enship. Findings show that indeed there is a conceptual distinction between talk and conversation. Hard news media use was move strongly related to po litical talk than to sociable conversations. Similarly, people who talked a bout politics more frequently also displayed higher levels of political fac tual knowledge and political participation. These findings suggest interest ing directions for further research about discussion and democracy.