Submission Date

7-18-2025

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Media & Communication Studies

Faculty Mentor

Sheryl Goodman

Project Description

Political polarization has negatively impacted our willingness and ability to engage effectively with others who hold different, and often opposing, points of view. However, at this time, it is crucial for people with different viewpoints to be able to have a civil discussion with one another in order to build healthy relationships, gain knowledge, and develop creative solutions to the complicated problems we face today. In this project I sought to determine which communication strategies encourage dialogue and which strategies hinder dialogue by analyzing video recordings of 10 student-facilitated discussions on controversial topics in a college seminar, Difficult Dialogues. Martin Buber and Carl Rogers’ conceptualizations of dialogue were used to identify dialogic moments in the videos. The findings revealed that self disclosure/ personal revelation, commenting explicitly on the riskiness of oneself disclosure, validation of the other, testing new ideas, and asking analyzing and expanding questions.

Comments

Presented during the 27th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 18, 2025 at Ursinus College.

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