2022/07/12 by Díaz Frias, Viviana
#FOS: Media and communications
paper · doi:10.25598/jkm/2022-14.31
Political polarisation seems to be an inherent feature of modern society. Without being a new phenomenon, its spread is closely related to the effects of the mediatisation of society. The irruption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has fostered the emergence of new scenarios for the manifestation of these differences: social media. Different works by academics, such as Bruns (2019), Cosentino (2020), Navarria (2019), Sunstein (2017) and van Dijck (2013), have worked on how social networks play a key role in the creation of echo chambers and filter bubbles, where individuals are exposed to information that tends to reinforce what they already think, and this favours the formation of marked sides at the extremes of certain issues. In addition to ICTs, there is an emotional component, as Bollmer (2018) and Nikunen (2019) stated, where feelings are often the fuel of the humans’ online behaviour. This review paper explores these theories and concludes by acknowledging the role of social networks as catalysers of political polarisation nowadays.