Presentation at the 8th World Conference of Science Journalists WCSJ2013 in Helsinki, Finland, on 25 June 2013, on the session "Debate-driven journalism: science debates as a tool and opportunity for science journalists". http://wcsj2013.org/debate-driven-journalism-science-debates-tool-opportunity-science-journalists/

1. The Estonian Science
Debate and the need to be
international
Priit Ennet
Science Journalist, Estonian Public Broadcasting
President, Estonian Association of Science Journalists
Board Member, European Union of Science Journalists' Associations

2. The path to the debate
ESOF 2010 in Turin: the American and German
experience
From initial inertia to small committed team
'Hijacked' a popular weekly event with many
regular attendees
Devised questions by consulting with scientists

3. The debate itself
Four candidates debated for two hours
Attended by about 60 people
Web streamed to several hundred

4. Conclusion from the debate
It can be done with a near-
zero budget and a little help
from one's friends.

8. Part of a wider trend
● Internationally
● Conceptually

9. Deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy or discursive
democracy is a form of democracy in which
deliberation is central to decision making.
Deliberative democracy holds that, for a
democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be
preceded by authentic deliberation, not merely
the aggregation of preferences that occurs in
voting.
Wikipedia

10. Network-related phenomena

11. Deliberative network
● Deliberative sessions
● Evolving texts
● Shared information space
● Common protocol
● Emergent goals

12. a permanent,
distributed,
low intensity
conference
In essence:

13. A good deliberative network is:
● Well argued
● Continuous, interdependent
● Transparent, open, inclusive
● Decentralised, non-hierarchical
● Diverse, variabile, flexible
● Friendly, non-hostile
● Voluntary

14. Objections to the deliberative
network idea
Deliberative networks already exist; there is
nothing fundamentally new to the idea.
Deliberative networks are fancy utopian
science fiction; the idea is unrealistic.

15. Next:
An international deliberative
network of science debate
advocates.