ABSTRACT

Rising political polarization is, in part, attributed to the fragmentation of news media and the spread of misinformation on social media. Previous reviews have yet to assess the full breadth of research on media and polarization. We systematically examine 94 articles (121 studies) that assess the role of (social) media in shaping political polarization. Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, we find an increase in research over the past 10 years and consistently find that pro-attitudinal media exacerbates polarization. We find a hyperfocus on analyses of Twitter and American samples and a lack of research exploring ways (social) media can depolarize. Additionally, we find ideological and affective polarization are not clearly defined, nor consistently measured. Recommendations for future research are provided.

摘要

日益加剧的政治两极分化部分归因于新闻媒体的碎片化和社交媒体上错误信息的传播。之前的评论尚未评估媒体和两极分化研究的全部广度。我们系统地检查了 94 篇文章（121 项研究），这些文章评估了（社交）媒体在塑造政治两极分化中的作用。使用定量和定性方法，我们发现过去 10 年的研究有所增加，并且一致发现亲态度媒体加剧了两极分化。我们发现对 Twitter 和美国样本的分析过于关注，并且缺乏探索（社交）媒体如何去极化的研究。此外，我们发现意识形态和情感两极分化没有明确定义，也没有一致的衡量标准。提供了对未来研究的建议。