Respect in communication is one of the key elements of good deliberation and a prerequisite for developing a quality debate. It is particularly interesting to explore this phenomenon in interactive communication spaces on the Internet, such as online forums, to which great potential for the development of critical, rational and argumentative debate has been ascribed. However, there are many conceptual and empirical ambiguities, inconsistencies and problems in researching the notion of respect. Analyses of conversations in online forums show, among other things, that participants fail to achieve mutual respect. The main purpose of master's thesis is to study the communication aspect of respect in discussions, with emphasis on conversations in online forums. The main premise is that despite the potential of online forums to develop deliberative discussions and, consequently, mutual respect, the degree of respect is (still) low. I am ewxamining this assumption through theoretical discussions and, in methodological work, through a qualitative content analysis of the debate in one of the online forums of RTV Slovenia, where the users of the forum discuss the political parties of the Republic of Slovenia, that will take part in the June parliamentary elections. The analysis shows a low degree of respect and a high degree of use of disrespectful statements in the debate, which confirms my assumption and, among other things, opens up various ideas for further research.
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