Social media use and political polarization: Looking at the effects of social media (platforms) on political polarization
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2024-07-05
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en
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Political polarization is rising across the world. For this research, two distinct forms of political polarization will be examined: ideological and affective polarization. The role that social media use plays in the context of political polarization is increasingly researched. This study wants to examine these effects of social media use on political polarization in the context of The Netherlands. It shows that social media use leads to people being more ideologically polarized and to people being more affectively polarized (party based). Furthermore, social media use polarizes people on the issues of immigration and climate change. Not only the effect of general social media use will be studied, but also the effect of using three different social media platforms on political polarization: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The findings show that Facebook is the platform that ideologically polarizes people the most, and that Facebook is the strongest predictor for people being polarized on the issues of immigration and climate change. Besides that, Facebook use is the platform that affectively polarizes (party based) the most. After that, the research shows that traditional media use is a stronger predictor for polarization than social media use on the following issues: gender transition and only allowing the Dutch flag on public buildings
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen