Modul:   MAT959  Seminar in Data Science and Mathematical Modelling

Echo Chambers and Polarization in Online Social Media

Talk by Prof. Dr. Matteo Cinelli

Speaker invited by: Prof. Dr. Alexandre Bovet

Date: 21.03.24  Time: 12.15 - 13.45  Room: Y27H12

Do echo chambers exist on social media? By focusing on how users relate to distinct narratives I will provide quantitative evidence that they do. The explanation involves users' tendency to promote their favored stories and hence to form polarized groups. Confirmation bias helps to account for users' decisions about whether to spread content, thus creating informational cascades within identifiable communities. At the same time, aggregation of favored information within those communities reinforces selective exposure and group polarization. Furthermore, the echo chamber effect display platform-specific peculiarities that can be quantitatively distinguished and modeled.