Filter bubbles and digital echo chambers 1

Abstract

Filter bubbles and echo chambers are often named as key drivers of political polarisation and societal fragmentation. The conceptualisation of echo chambers and filter bubbles and their relationship is still subject to an ongoing academic debate. For echo chambers, the constituting affordances of online communication mainly pertain to online social networks. The large-scale, multi-platform studies all show that the prevalence of filter bubble and echo chamber effects among the majority of the population is low. In the review of literature on filter bubbles and echo chambers, it became clear that both concepts are frequently operationalised as ideological bubbles. The mismatch of theoretical work and empirical work on echo chambers and filters bubbles might also be a manifestation of a lack of explicit normative research in the field. It can be argued that ideas and attitudes expressed in fringe bubbles hold higher news value because of their novelty and extremity.