Bridging Echo Chambers? Understanding Political Partisanship through Semantic Network Analysis

Abstract

In an era of intense partisanship, there is widespread concern that people are self-sorting into separate online communities which are detached from one another. Referred to as echo chambers, the phenomenon is sometimes attributed to the new media landscape and internet ecosystem. Of particular concern is the idea that communication between disparate groups is breaking down due to a lack of a shared reality. In this article, we look to evaluate these assumptions. Applying text and semantic network analyses, we study the language of users who represent distinct partisan political ideologies on Reddit and their discussions in light of the January 6, 2021, Capitol Riots. By analyzing over 58k posts and 3.4 million comments across three subreddits, r/politics, r/democrats, and r/Republican, we explore how these distinct groups discuss political events to understand the possibility of bridging across echo chambers. The findings of this research study provide insight into how members of distinct online groups interpret major political events.