Discursive Resilience

Abstract

In contemporary digitalized media environments, the interaction between technologies and user practices can lead to polarization, fragmentation, and radicalization of the media discourse. We argue that these issues require efforts to strengthen ‘discursive resilience’, which we define as the capacity of the discourse on digital platforms or (social) media and its participants to cope with polarization, fragmentation, and radicalization, and to adapt and transform its capacities, procedures, and structures in anticipation of these issues. In this contribution, we propose three strategies to counter such threats and build discursive resilience: diagnosis of risks and vulnerabilities, user literacy in digital media environments, and platform regulation and self-management.