Polarized Speech on Online Platforms

While political polarization has increased as measured through surveys, currently we lack comprehensive, longitudinal, and ecologically valid measurement of the polarization of online political speech that spans social media platforms. Using language models, we analyze ~2.5 billion comments on Reddit and Twitter across ~1.7 million accounts from 2007-2023 and find that polarized speech has been rising on both platforms since their inception, with outgroup polarization levels higher on Twitter than Reddit. On Twitter, while U.S. politicians on the left have been consistently more polarized than everyday users, politicians on the right experienced the highest growth in polarization, overtaking journalists, media, and everyday users over the past four years. Today, politicians, the group listened to the most for their political rhetoric, are far more polarized than everyday users. Additionally, while polarized speech is typically lower for accounts with more followers, right-leaning political influencers are an exception to this trend, which may influence perceptions of polarization on the left versus the right. Polarization is more diffuse across users on Twitter than on Reddit, where it is localized to a few communities. Polarization also varies by topic, with right-leaning users twice as likely to use polarized rhetoric about immigration as left-leaning users while left-leaning users are somewhat more likely to be polarized around healthcare. Our large-scale analysis reveals previously unknown patterns of polarization across platforms, groups, and topics that will help us better contextualize polarized content and potentially intervene to reduce it

Homophily and Polarization in Twitter Political Networks:A Cross-Country Analysis

Homophily, the tendency of people to have ties with those who are similar, is a fundamental pattern to understand human relations. As such, the study of homophily can provide key insights into the flow of information and behaviors within political contexts. Indeed, some degree of polarization is necessary for the functioning of liberal democracies, but too much polarization can increase the adoption of extreme political positions and create democratic gridlock. The relationship between homophilous communication ties and political polarization is thus fundamental because it affects a pillar of democratic regimes: the need for public debate where divergent ideas and interests can be confronted. This research compares the degree of homophily and political polarization in Catalan MPs' Twitter mentions network to Dutch MPs' Twitter mentions network. Exponential random graph models were employed on a one-year sample of mentions among Dutch MPs (N = 7,356) and on a one-year, three-month sample of mentions among Catalan MPs (N = 19,507). Party polarization was measured by calculating the external-internal index of both Twitter mentions networks. Results reveal that the mentions among Catalan MPs are much more homophilous than those among the Dutch MPs. Indeed, there is a positive relationship between the degree of MPs' homophilous communication ties and the degree of political polarization observed in each network

A Relational Investigation of Political Polarization on Twitter

Over the last several decades there has been a debate among social scientists on whether the United States has become, or is in the process of being, politically polarized. These conversations started with discussion of the “culture wars,” moved to the discussion of selective exposure and media outrage, and currently involve concerns about online radicalization and the spread of online misinformation. Throughout these themes one characteristic has remained constant: a lack of systematic evidence despite anecdotes and feelings of animosity between the two parties. Today researchers are beginning to shift from operationalizing political polarization as growing divides in attitudes towards policy issues towards a focus on political animosity. Scholars attempting to understand the origins of affective polarization have looked at the effect of political identity, out-group perceptions, and the diffusion of moral and emotional content in social media networks. In the current study I build on this literature using a panel of longitudinal data Twitter users to examine whether there is an association between following prominent partisan Twitter accounts and the expression of emotional valence through Tweeting or Retweeting. I take a relational approach to analysis by examining how this relationship varies between networks of Twitter users and under different historical circumstances. I argue that this relational approach is necessary for understanding how political polarization is unfolding in the country and that the lack of a relational approach may explain why political polarization has been downplayed in systematic studies. This study finds that the amount of political polarization on Twitter is dependent both on cultural and historical context. It makes contributions to the literature on political polarization in the United States, research methodology, and has implications for reducing radicalization in online spaces

Analisis Fenomenologi Tagar #AnalogSwitchOff terhadap Polarisasi Media Sosial Twitter pada Generasi Z

Twitter is a social media platform that allows its users to share messages using a special feature called hashtag. These features allow users to expand the reach of their tweets and attract more followers. This study aims to analyze the phenomenon of the hashtag #AnalogSwitchOff and its impact on polarization on Twitter. The research method used is a qualitative approach with phenomenological analysis techniques. The data used are tweets that use the #AnalogSwitchOff hashtag during a certain period, as well as data from in-depth interviews with eight active Twitter users. The results of the study show that the #AnalogSwitchOff hashtag triggers polarization among Twitter users, especially in terms of political and social differences. This hashtag is also used as a means of expressing opinions and criticism of government policies regarding broadcasting digitization. This study provides a deeper understanding of the use of hashtags in influencing public opinions and views on Twitter. Keywords: Twitter, social media, hashtag, polarization, #AnalogSwitchO

Does Use of Twitter by Political Leaders Matter in a Health Crisis? The Perspective of COVID-19

While extant literature has reached a consensus on the effectiveness of Twitter in crisis communication, this paper contextualizes the use of Twitter specifically by political leaders during the COVID-19 crisis. We first identify political leaders on Twitter using machine learning techniques and then examine the significant properties of their networks. The findings demonstrate that the network of political leaders on Twitter is relatively dense and well-connected. However, a few nodes are highly prominent and have a large number of connections. Our study detects twenty-three communities of political leaders and observes the evidence of political polarization in the network. We also find two large communities representing the Republican and Democratic parties at the national-level. The remaining communities are reasonably well-balanced in size and center at the state-level. In further analysis, we plan to investigate the patterns of COVID-19 crisis communications through this network and explore the association with COVID-19 outcomes using panel data