BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:researchseminars.org CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:researchseminars.org BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Anna Lenhart (University of Maryland) DTSTART:20230215T170000Z DTEND:20230215T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260417T110910Z UID:Metagov/135 DESCRIPTION:Title: Public Engagement in Social Media Policy Through Game Play: A Citizen Pa nel Case Study\nby Anna Lenhart (University of Maryland) as part of Me tagovernance Seminar\n\n\nAbstract\nSection 230 of the Communication Decen cy Act has become the subject of intense public policy debate. Like much o f science and technology policy\, the debate focuses on the perspectives o f experts (Kleinman\, 2007). Though traditional means of engaging citizens in public policy such as citizen panels may be a promising method for inc reasing public engagement in debates about Section 230\, citizen panels re ly on quickly disseminating background educational materials to participan ts (Sclove\, 1996).\n\nDisseminating educational materials to scaffold the citizen panel process can highlight inequities that plague participatory governance methods\, as some participants have more time to engage with ma terials (Jefferson Center\, 2004). This case study combines the traditiona l citizen panel process (Sclove\, 1996) with a serious game (Abt\, 1987)\, to explore if and how games can prepare participants from diverse backgro unds to engage in technology policy discourse.\n\nGuided by Flanagan and N issembaum’s “Values at Play” framework (2014)\, we have designed and tested a card game in which participants debate\, experience\, and make d ecisions about platform governance\, titled Content Moderation by Design ( CMbD). We then convened nine participants for a day-long virtual citizen p anel. The effectiveness of the panel was evaluated on factors such as know ledge generation and democratic discourse using survey results and a quali tative analysis of the event recordings. We found that after playing the g ame\, participants were able to relate to a wider range of viewpoints and suggest diverse policy options which were compiled into a report and deliv ered to lawmakers.\n LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Metagov/135/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR