Social Media, Network Heterogeneity, and Opinion Polarization

Abstract

Employing a national probability survey in 2012, this study tests relationships between social media, social network service (SNS) network heterogeneity, and opinion polarization. The results show that the use of social media is a positive predictor of the level of network heterogeneity on SNSs and that the relationship is mediated by several news‐related activities, such as getting news, news posting, and talking about politics on SNSs. Testing the association between SNS network heterogeneity and polarization, this study considers 3 different dimensions of opinion polarization: partisan, ideological, and issue. The findings indicate that political discussion moderates the relationship between network heterogeneity and the level of partisan and ideological polarizations. The implications of this study are discussed.

“I Don't Like You Any More”: Facebook Unfriending by Israelis During the Israel-Gaza Conflict of 2014

“…Although this in itself does not directly contradict the argument that greater exposure to weak ties defuses polarization, it does suggest that its application might be limited to calmer times and that it might not hold in extreme political environments. This draws attention to a flaw in the “weak ties” argumentation: Even if it is true that our weak ties expose us to a variety of opinions, and that greater SNS use promotes network heterogeneity (Lee, Choi, Kim, & Kim, ) and the formation of weak ties, implying that SNSs expand our “political horizons” (Barberá, ), if these weak ties are fragile and are broken in the face of political crisis, what good are they? This would appear to suggest a “damned if you do, damned if you don't” approach to the weak ties literature, at least during periods of intense political debate: You are more likely to encounter cross‐cutting views if you have more weak ties, but you are also more likely to be less tolerant of them.…”

The role of news in promoting political disagreement on social media

“…The study therefore assumes that news use diversifies political communication on social media and focuses on the subsequent relationships between news use and disagreement consistent with that assumption. Although some limited evidence suggests that news use is related to the heterogeneity of communication networks (Barbera, 2014;Lee et al, 2014), more research is needed to directly investigate the role of news in diversifying communication on social media.…”

“…For example, Lee, Choi, Kim, and Kim (2014) show that social media diversify communication networks, in part, through news use (see also, Barbera, 2014), which implies, of course, that social media promote news use. This conclusion is generally borne out by observational analysis: Research shows a positive relationship between social media use and news use on social media in various political contexts (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012;Valenzuela et al, 2012).…”

Heineken in the House: Improving Online Media Reputation through Featuring a Sponsored Brand Community

“…Basing media reputations on those reactions leaves out the 'silent middle' and polarizes the main opinions (Lee et al, 2014). Media reputation therefore does capture the evaluations of firms made by many different stakeholders, but this measure is relatively coarse in that it captures only those evaluations that are made publicly (Deephouse, 2000).…”