Overcoming Social Polarization - An Exploration of Deliberative Democracy, Communication Ethics, and Post-Truth America

In this book, Jessica Neu explores how to advance the discussion of deliberative democracy in an era defined by widespread social polarization and identity politics. By utilizing the communication ethics scholarship of Ronald C. Arnett as a theoretical framework and reference point for analysis, Neu analyzes several pop culture artifacts to demonstrate how communication ethics and narrative-driven perspectives can be applied pragmatically in order to reach dialogic civility in a post-truth era. Through recognizing each artifact’s relationship with rhetoric, Neu highlights how they each represent ways in which discursive environment in physical space can be utilized to promote depolarization. Ultimately, this book provides a paradigmatic model that demonstrates how any individual can utilize this framework of communication ethics and deliberative democracy to enter a space of dialogic civility to depolarize our current post-truth world.