Media narratives, agonistic deliberation, and Skam: An analysis of how young people communicate in digital spaces

Increasingly, the means of engaging young people in constructive public debate and democratic society has shifted to online digital media platforms. This assumes that participants have the necessary media literacy skills to engage in a meaningful way. We discuss how and to what extent responses in an online blog elicited by two different scenes from the popular youth television series Skam [Shame] demonstrate agonistic deliberation and media literacy in digital dialogue spaces. Our study includes an analysis of the rhetorical characteristics of the dialogues; the mapping of key themes that characterise reactions of blog commentators in the online discussions; and a discussion of the characteristics of – and degree of deliberation in – online comments. We propose that narratives which employ agonistic deliberation around pertinent social themes are most likely to encourage and elicit public engagement that moves beyond emotional outbursts, reflecting a deeper consideration of the themes and topics.