Reading: echo chambers in parliamentary Twitter networks

homophily

tendency for people to form social networks, including friendships, marriage, business relationships, and many other types of relationships, with others who are similar
- provides theoretical background for echo chambers
- exposure to like-minded individuals can cause adoption of extreme positions and polarised political stances

heterogeneity

state of being dissimilar, composition from unlike elements
- can increase political tolerance and interest for information on various topics

lines of research concerning political polarisation and digital media

1. studies showing how the internet facilitates ideological self-segregation
2. studies showing how the internet increases exposure to political disagreement

research line 1 - studies showing how the internet facilitates ideological self-segregation

- emphasis on the internet as "echo chamber" in which individuals are exposed to similar expressions/ opinions
- Twitter is one of the platforms where users develop and maintain ideologically homogenous clusters
- extreme and conservative users are more likely to form homophilic ties

example: Adamic & Glance found that politically differentiated communities had a strong correlation with some US newspapers

research line 2 - studies showing how the internet increases exposure to political disagreement

- new media facilitates cross-ideological contacts with those who think differently
- cross-party and cross-ideological connections on Twitter were dependent on the layers (relations/ retweets/ mentions) in which the interactions take place => mention network is cross-ideological, while the relations and retweets are highly polarised

example: Brundidge found that through inadvertent exposure, the internet increased the heterogeneity of political discussion networks and therefore people's exposure to political differences

conclusion

Echo chambers can induce polarisation between politicians when looking on Twitter at the level of relations (connections), but not on retweets/ mentions.
- can cause a more fragmented society as people are not willing to listen to each other anymore