Title: Social polarization - Wikipedia
Headings: Social polarization
Social polarization
Contents
Creative class
Urban poverty
Role of media
See also
Notes

Content: However, it can also lead to an informal economy in many urban areas. Role of media
Digital media, and particularly social media, could potentially play a role in encouraging social polarization. This is because social media sites like Facebook can help cluster friends and acquaintances into homophilous circles, and social news sites like Digg can facilitate a consumption of news that is biased by its user’s choices. In the extreme, a lack of “a common public sphere” could lead to isolated, polarized groups which could even be hostile towards one another. For example, during the Arab Spring uprisings, it was observed that social media furthered the social stratification already present in several Arab states. However, cyberbalkanization, the phenomenon where media audiences fragment into "enclaves" where they only consume content they concur with—and thus theoretically promoting social polarization—may not have as much influence as believed. Utilizing Nielsen television and Internet audience data, James G. Webster found that ideological segmentation among media users was unlikely, as “even consumers of obscure niche media devoted most of their attention to more broadly appealing fare.” Yet Webster does admit that his research does not measure the particular nature of the subject matter consumed , or how strongly it affected the media viewers’ perceptions of society. Polarization observed in a particular social media site need not necessarily be a result of events and discussions that happen on that platform. Observed trends of polarization in online social media may therefore emerge from activities of users in other online platforms or offline activities.