Nothing Has Changed Since Yesterday, Why the Role of Social Media in Radicalization is more Complex than it Seems

Author

Robert T. pollard, Eastern Kentucky UniversityFollow

Abstract

In recent years there has been a seeming resurgence of political radicalism such as the alt-right and openly socialist groups that have coalesced around former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. This sudden resurgence of radicalism has often been blamed on Social Media and its perceived ability to create echo chambers and help these groups organize. The goal of this paper is to refute the idea that social media is the sole cause of this recent wave of radicalism by building a framework of radicalization agnostic of social media, and then to explore how social media interacts with that framework. The paper then provides potential solutions for reforming social media platforms to minimize what role they do have in radicalization

Semester/Year of Award

Spring 2020

Mentor

Shuangteng Zhang

Mentor Department Affiliation

Computer Science and Information Technology

Access Options

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

Bachelor Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Scholars

Degree Level

Bachelor's

Department

Computer Science and Information Technology

Department Name when Degree Awarded

Computer Science

Recommended Citation

pollard, Robert T., "Nothing Has Changed Since Yesterday, Why the Role of Social Media in Radicalization is more Complex than it Seems" (2020). Honors Theses. 713.
https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/713