AI, social media and echo chambers: From algorithmic prediction to antagonistic politics and the democratic potential

Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Democratic responsibility in the digital public sphere

Egyptian Women Controversial Issues and the Digital Public Sphere:Can Social Media Debates Be Used as Indicators of Social Struggle in Society? Enas Abou Youssef (bio) 1. Introduction Can social media networks be used as indicators of social class conflict in society? This is the core research question of this study. Social media networks have opened a new digital public sphere era. In Egypt, ever since the uprising on January 25, 2011, social media networks are considered one of the focal communicative tools that encouraged civic participation from many socio-ideological classes to the extent that the uprising was called the "Facebook revolution."1 Since 2011, the country has witnessed many waves of polarization. At the beginning, polarization was political where Islamists were facing secular trends. That polarization shed its light in other [End Page 58] aspects of social and economic life in Egypt later on. Many cultural and socioeconomic issues were displayed on social media and reflected diverse attitudes, approaches, and even values specifically regarding women's issues. In Egypt, among other Arab countries, the assumption that digital public sphere has higher freedom ceiling with socio-cultural issues is true to a substantial extent. Based on this assumption, one can examine socio-cultural struggles in Egyptian society from social issues debated and displayed on social media. Facebook, twitter, Tik-Tok, and reels can be considered reflections of different social classes that have access and are digitally empowered to dominate in the digital public sphere.2 According to Pierre Bourdieu, social status can be analyzed by considering three exchangeable capitals: economic, social, and cultural. In general, economic capital consists of money, assets, and property the individual holds. Social capital includes actual or virtual groups to which the individual belongs, their durable networks, and more or less institutionalized relationships.3 Cultural capital refers to the type of education and socialization that allows individuals to demonstrate their knowledge and cultural consumption and that differentiates them from other social groups.4 This article aims to present an analysis of Egyptian women's controversial issues that are displayed on the social media "Facebook" from one side and their indications to types of socio-cultural conflict existing in society from the other side during June 2021-July 2022. The key question is: What are the recent social conflict characteristics concluded from debates addressing Egyptian women's controversial issues displayed and trended on social networks? [End Page 59] 2. Reviewing the Literature and Theoretical Conceptual Framework 2.1 Digital Public Sphere One of the major points Jürgen Habermas highlighted when presenting the concept of "Public Sphere" is that sphere is "open to all." A public sphere refers to a society that can become engaged in "critical public debate."5 Accordingly, the public sphere would be linked to media for information, communication, and access by all citizens. Media plays the role of promoting the open market of ideas in liberal societies. Habermas thereby stresses that the public sphere is not just a sphere of public political communication, but also one that enables social relations using media.6 However, some scholars have argued that the idea of a public sphere, which is free from state censorship and private ownership, does not exist. Niklas Luhmann, for example, assured that all social systems, including communication systems, are related to the power of money and the paid/unpaid in the economy or the power of who is in office/out of office in politics.7 It should be noted that media systems never function in a vacuum. They are part of the political, socioeconomic system in society. Yet, recent technological factors have loosened the public sphere and opened access to more societal participants. Social media networks created new public sphere horizons of political communication. In 2011, there were revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and beyond. The common aspects of these protests were the use of social media networks as tactics of political, economic, and social protests, creating a new public space that reflected a common crisis of society.8 The digital public sphere is a communicative sphere that is provided or supported by online or social media – from websites to social network sites, weblogs, and micro-blogs. These platforms provide...

Being a master of metaphors

This paper examines how social media is providing a new digital public sphere and shaping the democratic process in Ghana. It draws on Habermas's public sphere theory to explore how social media has occupied a digital public sphere that creates spaces for democratic participation and public discourse. The paper reviews relevant literature on social media use as a tool of political communication, the new digital public sphere, and the democratic process in Ghana and globally. Since Ghana's return to democratic rule in 1992, the media landscape was initially dominated by traditional state and private media outlets. However, the rise of digital and social media over the past two decades has transformed the public sphere, creating online spaces for citizens to engage in political deliberations and share diverse viewpoints. The paper examines how social media played a crucial role in Ghana's 2020 elections, facilitating citizen political participation, public opinion formation, and activism despite COVID-19 restrictions on physical gatherings. Social media enabled political parties to campaign online, citizens to voice concerns, and interest groups to mobilize protests and demand accountability. While acknowledging the digital divide and attempts by political elites to control narratives, the paper argues that social media's interactive and connective structure has enhanced the public sphere by dismantling dominant discourses and amplifying alternative perspectives. The paper concludes by recommending robust fact-checking mechanisms and collaborative efforts from government, civil society, media, and interest groups to strengthen the digital public sphere's role in consolidating Ghana's democracy. Overall, it highlights social media's transformative impact on Ghana's public sphere and democratic processes.

Social media use in Fiji has expanded in recent years and has become a ubiquitous feature in wider society. Social media ecology focusses and examines the dimensions of an online environment and its interplay with human experiences in user engagement. These dimensions with human experiences in user engagement, can provide an insight into how influential social media groups can become in shaping discourses and views. To examine and discuss the social media ecology of an influencer group, the article details one of Fiji’s largest and most influential online groups. To do this, the article uses digital ethnography, supplemented with social media analytics. This study provides key findings in the social media ecology of influencer groups and online behavior. These findings may have implications for further research in media, citizen journalism, viral content creation and online political campaigning.

“Ideology and simultaneously more than mere ideology”: On Habermas’ reflections and hypotheses on a further structural transformation of the political public sphere

From Café Culture to Tweets

Abstract: The Echo Chamber Effect: Social Media, Ideological Divides, and Polarization in the Digital Age offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of how networked communication reshapes democratic life. Moving beyond simplistic metaphors of “bubbles,” the book conceptualises echo chambers as hybrid socio-technical formations produced by the interaction of platform architectures, cognitive dispositions, identity politics, and global inequalities. It combines theoretical insight with empirical sensibility to dissect the roles of algorithmic personalization, engagement-driven business models, content moderation, and datafication in structuring visibility and voice. The volume integrates psychological and sociological perspectives to explain why affective and epistemic polarization are so resilient within digitally mediated communities, and how misinformation, conspiracy narratives, and extremist networks exploit these dynamics. It situates echo chambers within broader contexts of authoritarian governance, migration, and the global digital divide, highlighting both the risks and protective functions of online enclaves for marginalised groups. The final chapters develop a normative and policy-oriented framework for governing digital publics, examining regulatory instruments, design interventions, civic education, and institutional renewal. Written in the style of leading research monographs, the book provides scholars, policymakers, and practitioners with a nuanced toolkit for understanding and addressing polarization in the platform era, emphasising that resilient democratic communication demands coordinated transformations in technology, governance, and culture. Keywords: social media, echo chambers, ideological polarization, affective polarization, misinformation, algorithmic personalization, digital public sphere, platform governance, digital divide, democratic resilience.

Searching social media and developing an effective communication perspective are two important aspects of managing a positive online presence and impactful messaging. Here are some tips for achieving both of these things by finding the right social media. Looking for goals, determining goals for using social media. Connect with friends and family, build a professional network, promote business, or participate in discussions on user-specific topics. For social media that have different user demographics, learn the key user characteristics of the target audience's platforms by highlighting the features and functionality offered by each platform. Platforms that have a lot of user interaction and engagement are more likely to build an effective online presence. Looking at various points of view, to avoid the digital era with the terms 'filter bubble' and 'echo chamber', you can actively seek information from various sources and different points of view. Follow social media accounts that represent a variety of views and participate in various discussion groups or forums. For steps users can follow to strengthen privacy, improve the quality of public opinion discussions, and build a more positive and inclusive social media environment.

Social media (SM) are often regarded drivers of personalized echo chambers in which only ideas resonante that individuals already hold, leading to more extreme opinions and intensified opinion expression. However, recent theorizing and evidence has cast doubts on the universal applicability of the echo chamber metaphor, pointing out that communication effects on opinion expression are much more complex than the metaphor suggests. Using the refugee crisis in Germany as a background, the current study challenges four implicit premises of the echo chamber metaphor empirically. The findings show a more complex picture than the metaphor implies: (1) Ignoring other information sources beyond SM may lead to severe misinterpretations; seeming evidence for echo chambers disappears after controlling for news media use. (2) SM reliance does not generally stimulate opinion expression. (3) Attitude extremity moderates the effect of SM reliance, suggesting that people with more extreme views are susceptible to echo chamber effects. (4) Attitude position on the issue-at-hand moderates the effect of SM reliance, which suggests that echo chambers do not completely shield their users from the public discourse. We propose the Echo Chamber Continuum (ECCo) Model to stimulate developing the echo chamber metaphor into a theory suitable for studying opinion formation.

With the rapid development of the Internet and social media, the digital public sphere is becoming an important space that influences public opinion and consumer behavior. This article takes the "Sam’s Club product selection controversy event" that sparked widespread discussion in China in 2025 as a case study to explore how social media shapes consumers' perception and trust in brands as a public sphere. Based on the theories of public sphere and brand trust, this study uses questionnaire surveys and text analysis methods to analyze how social media promotes extensive discussions among consumers about this event. The research finds that social media uses hot lists and tag functions to strengthen agenda-setting attributes, expand the spread of the event, and influence the image of the brand constructed in the public's mind. This article points out that the digital public sphere is not limited to political issues, and its influence is increasingly extending to the consumption field. The significance of this study lies in revealing the mechanism of social media's role in consumption disputes and providing references for brands on how to respond to crises, rebuild trust, and shape identity in the digital public sphere.

How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media

"To understand how to regulate social media, you have to understand why you want to regulate it. I will say something about specific regulatory proposals in the last part of this essay. But I want to spend most of my time discussing the why as much as the how.\n\nHere is the central idea: Social media companies are key institutions in the 21st century digital public sphere. A public sphere doesn’t work properly without trusted and trustworthy institutions guided by professional and public-regarding norms. The goal of regulating social media is to create incentives for social media companies to be responsible and trustworthy institutions that will help foster a healthy and vibrant digital public sphere.\n\nWhat is the public sphere? For purposes of this essay, we can say that the public sphere is the space in which people express opinions and exchange views that judge what is going on in society. Put another way, the public sphere is a set of social practices and institutions in which ideas and opinions circulate. The public sphere is obviously crucial to democracy. But most people’s opinions aren’t about government policy. They are about sports, culture, fashion, gossip, commerce, and so on.\n\nA public sphere is more than just people sitting around talking. It is shaped and governed, and made functional or dysfunctional, rich or poor, by institutions. Most of the institutions that constitute the public sphere are private. They sit between the public and the government. There are lots of examples in the pre-digital world: print and broadcast media, book clubs, spaces for assembly and conversation, sports stadiums, theaters, schools, universities, churches, libraries, archives, museums, and so on.\n\nA digital public sphere is a public sphere that is dominated by digital media and digital technologies. Digital media become the key institutions that either maintain or undermine the health of the public sphere."