The Evolution of Political Discourse in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

The essay explores the evolution and development of political discourse in the context of social media with reference to the ongoing changes in public communication and perception driven by these dynamics. It argues that the social networks are dramatically increasing the role of such evolution and urges to take into account their implications when engaging in future political discourses and interventions. Social networks are more and more becoming the primary communication channels among people. Their use is growing rapidly and dramatically transforming the common way of exchanging information. A message can reach millions of users in less than a second in a direct, relatively uncontrolled way. Social networks allow the spreading of information such as photos and videos and the reproduction of news through links. In most cases, this happens at the expense of traditional, slower and controllable media. It is passing from a journalism inspired by facts and well-documented sources to a more reactive one. There are worries/alerts about an increasing spread of (also passive) misinformation. This can induce unjustified alarm also as a result of hoaxes and can have negative implications on public opinion and policy (Battista, 2022). The recent US presidential elections have been a good test case of this scenario. For several reasons, in such contexts, users are more prone to share information, images, declarations and political orientations that can be not necessarily reliable. Traditional media are often counterbalancing this spread, enhancing polarization. Social media seems to homogenize the view at least of the user group generating/broadening a significant polarization with respect to an external observer. A more informed use of the tools and methodologies emerging by the new data science could help to reduce the spread of misinformation and enhance the fight to it. At the same time, it seems very important to take into account social media implications also when exploiting them. These are very fast channels for spreading partially controlled information. In the fast society we are living in, they can change the public perception in seconds and shape/direct the agenda. Far from being a panoptic analysis of the question, the essay is articulated around the description of several thoughts arose during the development of the Vitagraph, a thought analysis tool.

 Keywords: political discourse, social media, misinformation, public communication, information exchange, polarization, data science.