CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Ali, Hufsa |
|---|---|
| Title | Role of Social Media in Political Polarization in Pakistan |
| Summary | This research focuses on the contribution of social media networking sites to the intensification of political polarization in society by forming "echo chambers”. Echo chambers are characterized by selective exposure that shield people from opposing viewpoints on specific issues. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow the users to limit the content they want to see on their newsfeed and filter the contacts they want to interact with. This feature of the social media sites possibly promotes even extreme ideologies by restricting diverse viewpoints, hence polarizing the society. Following the widespread concern regarding polarization and diverse viewpoints about its contributing factors in the literature. This research investigates the echo chamber effect of social media and whether it contributes to political polarization in society by exposure to reinforcement messages. This research is a survey experiment conducted for the case of #Metoo movement. Respondents are randomly divided into treatment and placebo groups, where the treatment receives reinforcing messages (based on their initial beliefs, with the expectation to strengthen their beliefs) and the placebo groups receives messages unrelated to the me too movement. The pre-survey and post-survey questions will follow the treatment to check their change in position on the Meetoo movement and assess the treatment's (reinforcement messages) effectiveness. This survey experiment investigates the influence of social media and provides a better understanding of how echo chambers on social media influence political polarization in Pakistan. For statistical analysis, OLS Regression and Difference in Difference approach are used. The results of this research shows that the treatment effects are statistically significant and patterns have been observed that provides evidence that reinforcement messages strengthen ones’ beliefs moving their ideological position towards the extreme. The research will discuss the results drawn from the analysis and provide new avenues for future research prospects. |
| Supervisor | Dr. Mariyana Angelova |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/ali_hufsa.pdf |
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