Political Polarization on the Digital Sphere: A Cross-platform, Over-time Analysis of Interactional, Positional, and Affective Polarization on Social Media

Yarchi, Moran; Baden, Christian; Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta

doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1785067

Cited by 229 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…These two methodological approaches provide visibility into infodemic dynamics that a single method could not. They also address common concerns with self-reported information consumption (e.g., Guess, 2015) as well as differing dynamics across social media platforms (e.g., Yarchi et al, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infodemic Pathways: Evaluating the Role That Traditional and Social Media Play in Cross-National Information Transfer

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has occurred alongside a worldwide infodemic where unprecedented levels of misinformation have contributed to widespread misconceptions about the novel coronavirus. Conspiracy theories, poorly sourced medical advice, and information trivializing the virus have ignored national borders and spread quickly. This information spread has occurred despite generally strong preferences for domestic national media and social media networks that tend to be geographically bounded. How, then, is (mis)information crossing borders so rapidly? Using social media and survey data, we evaluate the extent to which consumption and propagation patterns of domestic and international traditional news and social media can help inform theorizing about cross-national information spread. In a detailed case study of Canada, we employ a large multi-wave survey and a massive data set of Canadian Twitter users. We show that the majority of misinformation circulating on Twitter that is shared by Canadian accounts is retweeted from U.S.-based accounts. Moreover, exposure to U.S.-based media outlets is associated with COVID-19 misperceptions and increased exposure to U.S.-based information on Twitter is associated with an increased likelihood to post misinformation. We thus theorize and empirically identify a key globalizing infodemic pathway: disregard for national origin of social media posting.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infodemic Pathways: Evaluating the Role That Traditional and Social Media Play in Cross-National Information Transfer

et al. 2021

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“…In our study, such content-related motivations were reported not only by habitual news avoiders, but also by frequent consumers. The latter were nonetheless compelled to circumvent news in response to the stressful Israeli context, where hightension events and the polarized discourse they invoke (John and Dvir-Gvirsman 2015;Strömbäck, Djerf-Pierre, and Shehata 2013;Yarchi, Baden, and Kligler-Vilenchik 2020) generate emotional overload, anxiety, and frustration. Global crises such as the recent COVID-19 outbreak may also invoke similar reactions over time.…”

Section: Discussion: the Interaction Of Materiality And Content In Nementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a society embedded in an ongoing violent conflict, Israeli citizens, including young adults, are highly involved in politics and current affairs (Mor, Kligler-Vilenchik, and Maoz 2015). At the same time, Israeli society is deeply polarized with respect to people's political positions and interactions (Yarchi, Baden, and Kligler-Vilenchik 2020).…”

Section: The Israeli Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Be Less of a Slave to the News”: A Texto-Material Perspective on News Avoidance among Young Adults

2020

Self Cite

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The distinct media repertoire of young adults in the digital age, especially their increasing ability to bypass the news media, inspires a wealth of research. While previous studies have focused on social-and content-related motivations to avoid the news, we have yet to fully understand the interplay of such motivations with material, technology-related considerations. Drawing on 36 in-depth interviews with Israeli young adults, this paper explores the varied motivations of young audiences to avoid the news through a texto-material conceptualization of news avoidance as directed at both contents and objects. An inductive-qualitative analysis of young adults' media consumption narratives identified three main dimensions: content, medium, and user-oriented news avoidance. The study demonstrates the material aspects of both deliberate and unintentional news avoidance, and how they relate to content-oriented considerations. Furthermore, the Israeli socio-political context reveals that in times of crisis, these motivations are shared by both heavy and light news consumers. Taken together, the different avoidance motivations and practices identified in this study provide an analytical framework to further understand news avoidance and design differentiated strategies to address young adults' disengagement from news.

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“…Like other countries with a collectivist orientation (see, e.g., Boczkowski et al, 2018 on Argentina), Israelis are avid users of WhatsApp groups, which run the gamut from private chats among close friends to large-scale groups dedicated to discussion of professional matters. Here, we focus on journalistic WhatsApp groups where politically interested individuals come together for the purpose of engaging in political discussion (see Kligler-Vilenchik, 2019; Kligler-Vilenchik & Tenenboim, 2020; Yarchi et al, 2020). Facebook is generally seen in Israel as the “mainstream” social media platform, that is, most popular among adults (“Bezeq Internet Report,” 2019).…”

Section: Political Polarization and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpretative Polarization across Platforms: How Political Disagreement Develops Over Time on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp

Kligler-Vilenchik

Baden

Yarchi

2020

Social Media + Society

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Political polarization, seen as a key threat to contemporary democracy, has been tied to the rise of digital social media. However, how this process develops in the context of a social media environment characterized by multiple platforms—with differing norms, contents, and affordances—has not been sufficiently explored. In the present article, we propose a distinction between positional polarization, that is, people’s view on a political issue, and interpretative polarization, that is, how that political issue is contextualized and understood. We use this distinction to examine an issue of political controversy in Israel, examining how polarization develops over time, on three social media platforms—Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. We find that contrasting positions are strongly connected to conflicting interpretations, both of which are clear from the start, with only minor overtime shifts. Moreover, while sharing broad similarities, the three platforms show a few distinctive polarization dynamics—both positional and interpretative—that can be connected to their varied socio-technical affordances. The study advances our theoretical understanding of polarization by examining how different social media platforms may shape distinct polarization dynamics over time, with different implications for democratic debate.

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Political Polarization on the Digital Sphere: A Cross-platform, Over-time Analysis of Interactional, Positional, and Affective Polarization on Social Media

Cited by 229 publications

References 49 publications

Infodemic Pathways: Evaluating the Role That Traditional and Social Media Play in Cross-National Information Transfer

Infodemic Pathways: Evaluating the Role That Traditional and Social Media Play in Cross-National Information Transfer

“Be Less of a Slave to the News”: A Texto-Material Perspective on News Avoidance among Young Adults

Interpretative Polarization across Platforms: How Political Disagreement Develops Over Time on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp

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