Moralizing and Deliberating in Financial Blogging. Moral Debates in Blog Communication During the Financial Crisis 2008

Abstract

The public engagement with the financial crisis sparked in 2008 is a process of (re)discussing, (re)negotiating and communicatively (re)constructing norms, values and ethics. Several studies show that debates on causes and solutions are often related to explicit and implicit references to norms and values. However, the concrete way in which norms and values are communicatively constructed is mostly neglected in research. Integrating approaches of deliberation and moralization research, the chapter provides a detailed discussion of moral debates, communicative practices and mechanisms of constructions of norms and values in financial blog communication. The findings reveal two central aspects: First, the actors’ engagement with the crisis is not limited to the financial crisis itself but also deals with norms of public communication. Second, they show the interplay of commingled practices of moralizing and deliberating. The chapter underlines that research on (moral) public debates requires the consideration of both moralization and deliberation as crucial concepts for a comprehensive analysis of public social negotiations and their dynamics of interaction.