Social Media-Induced Polarization: The Case of #BlackLivesMatter
Abstract
Political polarization is a critical threat to national security, and affective polarization in the US has increased more radically in the last four decades than in any other democratic state. Social media provides an exposed forum for social movement mobilization, exploitation by which rogue actors manipulate, and a vehicle for influencers to promote their cause and drive behavior. It can also act as an open domain for misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. Social media accelerates the process of polarization due to humans general vulnerability to influence and the affordances of the technology itself, what social media invites people to do. Cognitive biases, heuristics, and social needs amplify the power of social media influence, especially when users are more likely to share and spread content that has an emotional response, or sort themselves along identity fault lines. The politics of contention and polarization come from decades of bitter divisions across the US seen in apparent viral YouTube videos of interpersonal conflict against racial divides, with rogue actors and influencers actively stoking cultural conflict on social media platforms. However, polarization does not simply arise from actors promoting message content. Rather, polarization can be seen as a product of media usage and media effects that cultivate polarization over time. Social media may polarize individuals, and thus may also foster the polarization of a network. Through Analysis of Competing Hypotheses and examination of the Black Lives Matter case study, the social media platform demonstrates the most significant capacity in increasing polarization. The propensity for human biases in information consumption and reasoning, amplified by social media algorithms, fuels the sharing of content and political cues that in turn amplifies polarization. The content that drives publics toward more polarization views can take the forms of frames.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 25, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1178244
Entities
People
- Allison N. Smyczynski
Organizations
- Marine Corps University