From Information to Fragmentation: Digital Media and the Dynamics of Social Polarization
From Information to Fragmentation: Digital Media and the Dynamics of Social Polarization

Author(s): Kalin Kalinov
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies
Published by: Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Софийски университет „Св. Кл. Охридски”
Keywords: fragmentation; polarization; digital media; public sphere; algorithmic curation; surveillance capitalism; elaboration likelihood model
Summary/Abstract: The present article argues that digital media platforms do more than amplify pre-existing political divisions. They structurally generate a distinct social con dition, for which the dominant vocabulary of polarization is no longer adequate. Drawing on an extended theoretical framework, the article traces a movement from the information-society promise of the late 20th century to a present marked by fragmentation. The proliferation of small, mutually antagonistic identity formations rather than the consolidation of two opposing camps. Algorithmic curation, optimized for engagement, delivers progressively more extreme content. This content is then processed under conditions of low cognitive elaboration and motivated reasoning, producing audiences that are more extreme in both their attachments and their hostilities. The article is initial theoretical exploration of the field as a first step towards more rigorous and empirically grounded research. The conclusion offered is that polarization scholarship is right but incomplete. Fragmentation is the next stage, and democratic theory has yet to catch up with it.

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