Social media affordances and the structure of public discourse

Abstract

newline Chapter one introduces this thesis on the role of social media in public discourse. The chapter motivates the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to bring together the problematization of public discourse and the conceptualization of the social media artifact. Chapter two delineates the scope of the social media artifact used in public newlinediscourse and conceptualizes it for research on the role of social media in public discourse. Chapter three investigate the effect of social media on the power structure underpinning public discourse. Chapter four contributes to this ongoing debate by applying the technology affordances lens to explain the structural conditions that affect polarization. The point of departure for this study is the argument that diversity in social media networks is not conducive to polarization.