Great expectations on a vibrant digital public sphere were articulated since the deliberative turn of democratic theory met the interactive and participatory potential of online Social Media. Online-comments are today an established variant of Social Media. They transform formerly passive and private actions, like attention to and discussion of news into a more interactive, instrumental political activity. This development provides the chance for deliberation in online public discourse. Deliberation is defined as auspicious ideal of reaching mutual understanding through high-value argumentation. Hence, this paper explores whether debates via online-comments correspond to the deliberative ideal by analysing online-comments on three professional news sites in Germany. Methodologically, I use a content analysis method based on an index informed by deliberative democratic theory. This Deliberative Quality Index (DQI) operationalizes the distinctive normative criteria of deliberation. Employing this index, I gain insights about deliberative strengths and weaknesses of online-comments as a growing ‘public space’.
