Filter Bubbles and Echo Chambers: Debunking the Myths

(Crossposted from the Polity blog.) Filter bubbles and echo chambers have become very widely accepted concepts – so much so that even Barack Obama referenced the filter bubble idea in is farewell speech as President. They’re now frequently used to claim that our current media environments – and in particular social media platforms such as …

Social Media in the Media III: Uses

In previous posts I outlined the details of a preliminary study we conducted on how social media are used as political tools and how this activity is portrayed in traditional media outlets. I provide an overview of the study and insights into the way in which newspaper articles compare and contrast new and traditional media …

Social Media in the Media II: User Groups

In a previous post I introduced work we have been doing here at the CCI to contribute to an understanding of the way in which social media are portrayed as political tools in traditional media outlets. In this post I provided a broad overview of a preliminary qualitative study of 56 articles from Australian newspapers …

Social Media in the Media I: Comparing Social and Traditional Media

One of the research projects some of us here at the CCI are currently involved in, in cooperation with researchers from California State University, Uppsala University, and the Universities of Oslo and Bergen, aims to apply a cross-media and cross-national approach to exploring The Impact of Social Media on Agenda-Setting in Election Campaigns. As part …