SS-21 American Bipartisanship and the Media Effect

Over the past 20 years, digital media use in the United States has skyrocketed. Social media and other online platforms have become the primary sources for political news, gaining widespread popularity among Americans. As new technologies have become more prevalent new challenges have arisen. Most notably the spread of misinformation on digital platforms has become prevalent, and American’s often self-select into news outlets that reinforce their beliefs. Another worrisome trend is that the American political climate has also grown increasingly polarized. The two major parties more divided than ever and partisan animosity within the mass public is increasing. This backdrop leads to a question of do social media and online news contribute to this growing political divide? Because social media algorithms amplify users' existing beliefs by tailoring content based on their interactions, these websites could further reinforce political polarization by creating echo chambers. Given this, examining the relationship between the digital age and political division is essential to finding potential solutions to bridge the gap. For my analysis, I used data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) 2020-2022 Social Media Study and conducted additional analysis using multiple regression. The independent variables included feeling thermometer ratings of the Democratic and Republican parties (based on party identification), while the dependent variable was whether an individual consumed online news. The results suggest that increased online news consumption correlates with more negative feelings toward the Republican Party among Democrats but does not have the same effect on Republicans. Specifically, Democrats tend to view Republicans less favorably as their consumption of online news increases, while Republicans' views of Democrats remain unchanged by their social media use.