Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts
Studies of political polarization in social media demonstrate mixed evidence for whether discussions necessarily evolve into left and right ideological echo chambers. Recent research shows that, for political and issue-based discussions, patterns of user clusterization may differ significantly, but...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cogitatio
2019-08-01
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| Series: | Media and Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1934 |
| _version_ | 1818014611769655296 |
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| author | Svetlana S. Bodrunova Ivan Blekanov Anna Smoliarova Anna Litvinenko |
| author_facet | Svetlana S. Bodrunova Ivan Blekanov Anna Smoliarova Anna Litvinenko |
| author_sort | Svetlana S. Bodrunova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Studies of political polarization in social media demonstrate mixed evidence for whether discussions necessarily evolve into left and right ideological echo chambers. Recent research shows that, for political and issue-based discussions, patterns of user clusterization may differ significantly, but that cross-cultural evidence of the polarization of users on certain issues is close to non-existent. Furthermore, most of the studies developed network proxies to detect users’ grouping, rarely taking into account the content of the Tweets themselves. Our contribution to this scholarly discussion is founded upon the detection of polarization based on attitudes towards political actors expressed by users in Germany, the USA and Russia within discussions on inter-ethnic conflicts. For this exploratory study, we develop a mixed-method approach to detecting user grouping that includes: crawling for data collection; expert coding of Tweets; user clusterization based on user attitudes; construction of word frequency vocabularies; and graph visualization. Our results show that, in all the three cases, the groups detected are far from being conventionally left or right, but rather that their views combine anti-institutionalism, nationalism, and pro- and anti-minority views in varying degrees. In addition to this, more than two threads of political debate may co-exist in the same discussion. Thus, we show that the debate that sees Twitter as either a platform of ‘echo chambering’ or ‘opinion crossroads’ may be misleading. In our opinion, the role of local political context in shaping (and explaining) user clusterization should not be under-estimated. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T06:46:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-571334a1f3be4e7199babbb3ba827831 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2183-2439 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T06:46:28Z |
| publishDate | 2019-08-01 |
| publisher | Cogitatio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Media and Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-571334a1f3be4e7199babbb3ba8278312022-12-22T02:07:09ZengCogitatioMedia and Communication2183-24392019-08-017311913210.17645/mac.v7i3.19341115Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic ConflictsSvetlana S. Bodrunova0Ivan Blekanov1Anna Smoliarova2Anna Litvinenko3School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University, RussiaFaculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, St. Petersburg State University, RussiaSchool of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University, RussiaInstitute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universitaet Berlin, GermanyStudies of political polarization in social media demonstrate mixed evidence for whether discussions necessarily evolve into left and right ideological echo chambers. Recent research shows that, for political and issue-based discussions, patterns of user clusterization may differ significantly, but that cross-cultural evidence of the polarization of users on certain issues is close to non-existent. Furthermore, most of the studies developed network proxies to detect users’ grouping, rarely taking into account the content of the Tweets themselves. Our contribution to this scholarly discussion is founded upon the detection of polarization based on attitudes towards political actors expressed by users in Germany, the USA and Russia within discussions on inter-ethnic conflicts. For this exploratory study, we develop a mixed-method approach to detecting user grouping that includes: crawling for data collection; expert coding of Tweets; user clusterization based on user attitudes; construction of word frequency vocabularies; and graph visualization. Our results show that, in all the three cases, the groups detected are far from being conventionally left or right, but rather that their views combine anti-institutionalism, nationalism, and pro- and anti-minority views in varying degrees. In addition to this, more than two threads of political debate may co-exist in the same discussion. Thus, we show that the debate that sees Twitter as either a platform of ‘echo chambering’ or ‘opinion crossroads’ may be misleading. In our opinion, the role of local political context in shaping (and explaining) user clusterization should not be under-estimated.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1934echo chamberinter-ethnic conflictpolitical polarizationsocial mediaTwitter |
| spellingShingle | Svetlana S. Bodrunova Ivan Blekanov Anna Smoliarova Anna Litvinenko Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts Media and Communication echo chamber inter-ethnic conflict political polarization social media |
| title | Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts |
| title_full | Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts |
| title_fullStr | Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts |
| title_short | Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts |
| title_sort | beyond left and right real world political polarization in twitter discussions on inter ethnic conflicts |
| topic | echo chamber inter-ethnic conflict political polarization social media |
| url | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1934 |
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