Social media and political partisanship – A subaltern public sphere’s role in democracy

From Digital Culture & Society

Article title: Social media and political partisanship – A subaltern public sphere’s role in democracy Find Article online: https://journals-scholarsportal info.proxy.library.brocku.ca/pdf/07365853/v35i0007/1949_smappaspsrid.xml

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.06.007

Contents 1 Context 2 Overview 3 Strengths and Weaknesses 4 Assessment

[edit] Context

Social media has been an important tool to engage within the public sphere. Social Media is a form of “Semi private” communication which users can engage theirs views and opinions. Users can control which content they want to share and ignore the opposite views. However without exposure to opposing views, the ideal of rational deliberation in public sphere will be thwarted. Because of the echo chamber effect and the decline in mass media influence on public opinion, researchers are concerned about the polarization of the public regarding common issues. The Echo Chamber effect may destroy the public sphere which can destroy the notion of debating.

[edit] Overview

This article explores the segregation and polarization of online users in consuming one sided contents that matches their views and beliefs. Many researches have expressed their anxiety about how this is anti-democratic and emphasises on the theory of “selective exposure” and “cognitive dissonance”. A recent study that investigated Facebook and YouTube, for example, found that 94% of Facebook users and 88% of YouTube users were polarized, that is, they concentrated their online reading and interactions (at least95%) on a specific narrative related to a given controversial topic, such as climate change(Uzzi, 2017). Another study on Twitter use by Demos, a cross-party think tank in the United Kingdom, found that the “echo chamber effect” was the strongest among those furthest from the political mainstream.(Cheshire, 2017). Finally a telephone survey was conducted in Hong Kong to assess public opinion and political development in Hong Kong. Data were collected on people's personal views under the “one country, two system” policy practiced in Hong Kong. There were 1028 successfully interviews with residents of Hong Kong above the age of 15. The researchers chose six main items that were at heart of Hong Kong politics. .The Six Items Were chosen to assess the following: the importance of democratic development and national interest in Hong Kong; satisfaction with the implementation of “one country two systems” and trust in the central government; assessment of Hong Kong’s well-being two decades after having been returned to China; and Hong Kong’s future development(P.1952) These items represent different dimensions of attitudes and beliefs. They examined the importance of social media and the role it plays in their political views. They used popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to see how many residents get their views on these platforms and what's the impact it has on their beliefs.

[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses

The article provides a lot of stats and evidence to highlight the importance of grasping a general understanding of the effect social media and the internet can have on our views. It provides many examples of how public sphere has been threatened. The study that was conducted in Hong Kong was very helpful which was done through phone interviews to understand the effect it has on residents.

The weaknesses in this article highlights the echo chamber effect. Meaning that social media has become anti-public sphere. Many people can impose their views on others without checking the story. For instance the article highlighted the Trump–Clinton Presidential Election in 2016. A study showed that unfounded stories about Clinton, such as “Clinton set up Satanic Network” and “Clinton had Parkinson’s disease,” received much attention in social media by Trump supporters (Sillito, 2016). Both Hillary Clinton fans and Donald Trump fans wanted to believe what they saw regardless if it was true or not. According to researchers Social media has become a polarized place where people only want to believe what they want and see.

[edit] Assessment

In conclusion, social media platforms has become an important tool to address political discussions and other important topics. This article focused on the notion of how people have used these platforms to there advantage and how views have become polarized. The study that was conducted in Hong Kong emphasises this notion that people are heavily affected at what is being said on social media since most of their news they get are from these different platforms. With the word “fake news” being commonly used, it is hard to prevent false information from spreading around but it is also hard to have a political discourse without polarized views. It is important to be able to have a political debate without having biased views and also to take the time to verify the information that is being provided