Investigating the Dynamics of Destructive Polarisation in Public Communication (BrIAS 2025)

Snurb — Wednesday 17 September 2025 03:49
Politics | Elections | Government | Polarisation | Journalism | Social Media | Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles | Facebook | Practice Mapping | Social Media Network Mapping | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) |

BrIAS 2025

Investigating the Dynamics of Destructive Polarisation in Public Communication

Axel Bruns

Presentation Video

Abstract

The focus of concerns about societal fragmentation in public communication is shifting. Instead of the retreat into echo chambers and filter bubbles that had been assumed in previous research, and which has not been confirmed by empirical evidence, greater emphasis is now being placed on polarisation along issue, ideological, and identity lines. Mild forms of polarisation can be productive, but at elevated levels polarisation variously leads individuals to dismiss alternative viewpoints, to attack political opponents verbally and even physically, and to embrace and disseminate (dis)information because of its ideological stance rather than its truthfulness. Social media play a particular role as a public space where such dynamics manifest, and activities there are themselves fed by the posting and sharing of material from mainstream as well as fringe media. This presentation introduces destructive polarisation as a particularly pernicious form of polarisation that is distinguished by a number of distinct symptomatic features, and outlines practice mapping as a novel approach to the analysis of the dynamics of such polarised debates. 

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