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Political party polarization
How social media affects politics
How social media affects politics
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Recommended: Political party polarization
Lee et. all 2014 Background: For the past few years, even decades, editorials, opinion pieces, and political commentators alike have announced and decried increasing political polarization in the United States, especially as demonstrated by the stark, divisive contrasts in recent election results. Online space is also found to be divided into left and right clusters in recent studies. This study tests the relationships between social media, social network service network heterogeneity, and opinion polarization. Questions/Expectations: The overarching question: does social media facilitate or attenuate polarization? The investigators identify and test two competing expectations about polarization. Expectation 1: individuals are more likely …show more content…
In this study, the researchers identify and consider three different dimensions of opinion polarization: political, ideological, and issue. To measure political polarization the researchers used the difference between the feeling thermometer index, rated between 0-100, of political parties of Democrat and Republican and calculating absolute values. For ideological polarization, they used the folded value of respondents’ answer to a question of political ideology. To measure issue polarization about specific issues, researchers used two questions asking favorability about same-sex marriage and the health care reform and calculating the absolute values of …show more content…
Lee et al. also found that the relationship between general social media use and the network heterogeneity on SNSs is mediated by specific SNSs usage patterns, such as getting news, posting news, and talking about politics. The most surprising finding by the researchers was that a higher level of SNS diversity led to more partisanship polarization for individuals participating in more political discussions whereas it had almost no effects on partisanship polarization for those joining fewer political discussions, and a similar pattern appears for ideological polarization. In fact, the researchers found that SNS network heterogeneity matters only so long as political discussion is taken into consideration in relationship with partisanship and ideology polarization. However, the same pattern was not observed for the two dependent variables of issue polarization: there were no significant moderation effects of political discussion for attitude polarization about same-sex marriage and health care
Sean Blanda’s, “The Other Side Is Not Dumb”, uses cultural examples concerning the younger American generation involving, the medias influence and peer pressure vs the actual facts and proof, involved while forming a personal opinion. The author emphasizes how the effects of pressure from our surroundings, such as: friends, media, and more, adjust our view of political and social subjects. He includes multiple cases of where your own ignorance can hinder your learning and interaction with others. If you continue to have a negative outlook on people who disagree with you, you’ll never be able to consider yourself a curious person and participate in social media. “We cannot consider ourselves “empathetic” only to turn around and belittle those that don’t agree with us.”- Mr. Blanda
In Nicholas Carr’s article “How Social Media Is Ruining Politics”, Carr writes about the effects that social media has on politics. In his article, Carr focuses more on the negative effect that social media has when it comes to politics. Some points that he makes about social media include specific examples like the recent presidential campaigns, how other technological advances over the years have effected politics, and the effectiveness that social media has on politics
Although, in recent years it is seen that consumers are less likely to subscribe to newspapers and/or watch the daily news. This is due to the fact that they are typically bias in their opinions, and are seen to lack the whole story when presented. Rise in polarization in the media is due to a new found competition between news networks, which was not present sixty years ago. Wilson says, “the news we get is not only more omnipresent, it is also more competitive and hence often more adversarial”. The media outlets are fighting for views, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get them. Which leads to them configuring the stories to what people want to here. Thus making their viewer ratings higher. It is known that certain news stations get more views depending on the political party. “Those who watch CNN are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans; the reverse is emphatically true of Fox”. The media has more outlets to reach their viewers to maximize the effectiveness of their biased
John Chambers of the University of Florida measures the difference between "actual" and "perceived" polarizat...
There is much debate in the United States whether or not there is polarization between our two dominate political parties. Presidential election results have shown that there is a division between the states; a battle between the Democratic blue states and the Republican red states. And what is striking is that the “colors” of these states do not change. Red stays red, and blue stays blue. Chapter 11 of Fault Lines gives differing views of polarization. James Wilson, a political science professor at Pepperdine University in California, suggests that polarization is indeed relevant in modern society and that it will eventually cause the downfall of America. On the contrast, Morris Fiorina, a political science professor at Stanford University, argues that polarization is nothing but a myth, something that Americans should not be concerned with. John Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic, gives insight on a driving force of polarization; the Tea Party Movement. Through this paper I will highlight the chief factors given by Wilson and Judis which contribute to polarization in the United States, and will consider what factors Fiorina may agree with.
One of the properties that allow social media to be an attractive tool to use by politicians is the ability to attract a massive audience of users. The Pew Research Center suggests that there is a growing number of social media users. A whooping 73% of US adults use the internet (Social Networking Fact Sheet). These...
When one hears polarization what comes to mind? Division? Freezing? Polarization being discussed is the views of people and how they differ. So what is political polarization? Political polarization refers to cases in which an individual’s stance on a given issue, policy, or person is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party or ideology. Politics have caused many problems in our country and polarization is a very significant one. The articles “Divided We Now Stand”, “What’s Wrong with Washington? Tribalism”, and “How Politics Break Our Brains, and How We Can Put Them Back Together” all have two main subjects in common which are how polarization in our country has worsened over the years, and
“Since the 1970s ideological polarization has increased dramatically among the mass public in the United States and political elites” (Abramowitz & Saunders, 2008, p.542).
Digrazia, J, Mckelvey, K, Bollen, J, Rojas, F & Martinez, LM . (2013). More Tweets, More Votes: Social Media as a Quantitative Indicator of Political Behavior. PLoS ONE, 8 (11), [1-5].
After arguably the most divisive and polarizing election in the history of the United States, many Americans are asking how exactly did we get here? Political scholars and experts overrun cable news shows and newspaper editorials with troubling claims declaring that America may be a more polarized nation today than at any other time in its long history. There is no doubt that the American electorate is divided nearly along party lines on almost all current policy issues. Republicans and Democrats seem to be shifting farther and farther toward opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. This paper aims to answer the question of what the primary cause for this current state of polarization is.
Winograd, Morley, and Michael D. Hais. Millennial Makeover [electronic Resource] : MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2008. DiscoverE. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .
Americans today will have no trouble recognizing the seemingly unmatched levels of political polarization present in the United States today; however, if asked, Americans would have a variety of different answers or explanations as to why they believe the political system has become so polarized. There are those who would take up the most direct explanation, the voters elect the representatives, and can choose whether to subscribe to particular agendas, issues, or rhetoric, so they are largely responsible for the state of political discourse. One might also point out the high degree of agency representatives and political elites are given, with their rhetoric being defended by a given side despite often being inflammatory or divisive. Others
The purpose of this essay is to develop a further understanding of the impact of social media in regards to the political debate. By looking at the topic of social media and the use of rhetoric in response to politics in the 21st century, a deeper understanding of the issue can be established. Social media has become a primary source for the discussion of politics by the average citizen whether through the sharing of articles, “memes”, advertisements or personal expository statements. As a result, large sums of information and ideas are spread rapidly across a wide variety of subjects. However, much of this information may not be accurate and could be misinterpreted.
Political socialization is defined as the way your opinions are formed by your environment. Through past experiences, upbringing, friends, family and clubs within a particular school system, we are all experiencing a type of socialization. The way that we vote is also influenced by these factors. “The areas of adolescent media use, and political socialization, areas rarely overlap, Media-use studies usually only peripherally examine consumption of public affairs and political content, often because the research involves younger children.” ("Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States."
Internet has been acknowledged as one of the most efficient way to collect and reflect public opinions, for that people with different classes and races can express their opinions with no obstacles in virtual network spaces. People can speak out whatever they want just by typing on the keyboard within a second. Dr. Heather Savigny mentions in her article “Public Opinion, Political Communication and the Internet” that “The expansion of the internet as a new method of communication provides a potential challenge to the primacy of the traditional media and political parties as formers of public opinion” (1). People realized that the power of internet public opinion in the focus on social issues can be used as a weapon to affect government decision-makings. However, does public opinion only brings positive effects?