How is Political Polarization Ignited Online, and What is Political Polarization?
The first blog post should cover political polarization first and needs to be well defined for future references on the topic in the digital age. Political polarization refers to the widening gap between political opinions/thoughts, resulting in a less centrist (moderate area) of the middle ground between the parties. Political polarization makes individuals who differ in political thought more likely they won't talk to someone from the other political side. Thus, polarization reinforces bias as individuals won't have an open mind in conversation of differing thoughts. According to Sean Westwood in Amanda Taub's article, The Real Story about Fake News Is Partisanship mentions Westwood and his research, he found that political parties started gaining larger negative opinions of people in the opposing party in the 1980's (Taub 2017). Since the 1980's, political polarization has grown even more exponentially today in the digital age. The ease of accessibility and being able to say what's on your mind is easy on social media, which allows for thoughts on political discourse within social media.
Talking about political polarizations role on social media, it is the most widespread concentration of polarizing opinions. Expressing discontent with something online, moral outrage is a result of the easiness of posting an opinion online. With so many different kinds of people with many different mindsets and opinions, people forget about the backlash they could face online, behind a screen. In the article, Political Polarization and Moral Outrage on Social Media, by Jordan Carpenter and et al., they discuss how people tend to get more emotional online due to the lack of confrontation. They said, "Data from previous studies using experience sampling suggest that people experience more intense outrage in response to immoral events that they encounter online compared to events that they encounter in person or via traditional media (e.g., TV, radio, newspaper) (Carpenter et al. 2021)". The researchers also found older people are more likely to hold polarized views and those who are on social media as an older person is found to be the most polarized. While their data is far from being complete, the data they gathered indicates the effect of people's emotions on social media and the future it is likely heading. Political polarization has a strong grip on social media platforms today and continues to do so. Knowing how to combat polarizing opinions and bridging a gap is needed to talk about in further detail. As well as what stories/tweets make a political topic, polarizing.
Bibliography
Carpenter, Jordan, William Brady, Molly Crockett, Rene Weber, and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. 2021. “Political Polarization and Moral Outrage on Social Media.” Connecticut Law Review 52 (3): 1107–20. https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=a873f166-5bb2-4fc0-bda3-89724f6edc3c%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=edshol.hein.journals.conlr52.31&db=edshol.
Taub, Amanda. 2017. “The Real Story about Fake News Is Partisanship.” The New York Times, January 11, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/upshot/the-real-story-about-fake-news-is-partisanship.html.
I completely agree that we all need to talk about mending the gap between those who are effected by the polarization within our country due to social media and news channels. We as a country can not move forward unless we deal with our separation as a people, as we are much stronger as one group than one split up into many. I can't wait to read more from your blog, and see even more detail about the polarization that happens within our country.
ReplyDeleteGood blog entry. This blog sort of ties in with the theme of my blog. I am following the Biden Administration through social media posts. As you stated from the sources you cited, people are more emotional online due to lack of confrontation. I find this to be very truth anecdotally! I see comments on Twitter and Facebook that I know people would never have the courage to stay in person to someone. The posts on social media and comments are just awful sometimes! If we did not have social media, I think maybe polarization would be lessened somewhat. It is easy to seek out what you only want to see on the internet. Traditional news sources that comes by a little bit harder. I look forward to reading your blog posts. I’m sure they will be informative. Plus, your blog will tie into mine! Go check it out when you get a chance.
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