The Role of Bubbles and Echo Chambers in Polarization

The seminar discussed the impacts of digital bubbles and echo chambers on increased political polarization. For many years, the literature on political polarization on social media was dominated by the hypothesis that bubbles or echo chambers created homogeneous digital environments that reinforced and ultimately radicalized political positions, contributing to polarization. These homogeneous spaces could be produced by users' choices (selective exposure) or induced by algorithms (bubbles), but in either case they would lead to frictionless environments that not only do not confront, but accentuate users' initial dispositions. Empirical research that has attempted to measure and explain this homogeneity of digital environments has shown mixed results. If, on the one hand, it is clear that users' digital environments are quite homogeneous, the literature is divided on whether this homogeneity is greater or lesser than that which we see in offline social relations. The literature is also divided as to whether this homogeneity would be a cause or consequence of polarization. The lecture featured Professor Axel Bruns, the main proponent of the thesis that we must seek new paths for research on polarization in digital environments.