On March 1st, my group hosted a deliberation titled The Right to Remain Outspoken: Deliberating Free Speech at Penn State. This week, I will be reflecting on my groups deliberation as well as the deliberation of another groups title, Let’s Not Beat Around The Bush: How Can We Fight Stereotypes In Porn?. I will be using criteria from outlined in Gastil’s chapter on deliberation to help guide me in my reflection. 

• Create A Solid Information Base
• What was learned from this deliberation as a whole was that Free Speech Is certainly a hot button issue here at Penn State. Although we did not reach a firm conclusion, It was still A very enjoyable Deliberation. A lot of great thoughts and ideas where shared and I felt very comfortable discussing my personal take. In general I got a very relaxed vibe from the group. While our Ideas are part of who we are, we didn’t let our emotions get in the way or take things too personally.
• Weigh Pros and Cons
• Again, Our Deliberation didn’t reach any firm consensus on the issue, as both sides where able to point out solid pros and cons with each approach. A lot of good arguments where made that divided the room in half. Overall, It was a pretty balanced on either side, with an equal amount of quality pros and cons that was enough to sway anyone to either side.
• Adequately distribute speaking opportunities
• I believe that this is where our group excelled. Yes there where a few speakers that seemed to be more invested in the topic than others, but I believe that everyone at least talked once in our debate. I would say that a majority of attendees got to a chance to speak multiple times, and provided very thoughtful discussion.
• Comparison: “Beating around the bush”
• I felt as though that this group could have done better in this aspect. I will say they did have a very sensitive topic, and a lot of people did show up to their deliberation which lead to a lot of people feeling uncomfortable and therefore not sharing. However, there where a few very outspoken people that dominated the discussion and there was no real attempt to try and include other people.

• Ensure mutual comprehension
• In our Deliberation, I felt that we where able to stay on track for the most part. We did get a little off track toward the end of the Deliberation, but I’m sure that was is a common theme when discussing any topic for more than an hour. Group members did speak clearly, and there where only a few times where there was confusion in what someone said, and clarification was asked and given in a timely matter.
• Consider other ideas and experiences
• There certainly was plenty of times where I disagreed with someone, however I did not disagree with them fully. What I disagreed on with people wasn’t necessarily entire concepts, but instead how to deal with them. I do not like hate speech and I do think that we should be trying to eliminate it as best as we can. That being said, I do not think that limiting our first amendment right is the way to do it.
• Comparison: “Beating around the bush”
• There where plenty of moments where I disagreed with what was being said, and frankly I did not believe in or respect what some of the other participants where suggesting. There was some good dialogue of people talking about how sex was portrayed by their family or culture, but there was also a lot of ranting that used tons of false information to support ideas that where both radical and unhealthy. I saw some people encourage this behavior, and felt as though many people disagreed with what was being said, but where afraid of the negative repercussions that could have came with challenging their views.
• Respect other participants
• Again, the amount of respect I saw that happened in our deliberation was impressive. It was clear to see that there was two very distinct sides to this deliberation, and it was made clear off the bat on where everyone lied on this issue. However we still where able to be very respectful to one another, with no untasteful insults and demeaning slander being thrown at anytime during the deliberation.