Filter bubbles and digital echo chambers. Judith Möller. Chapter in The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism, 2021

Filter bubbles and digital echo chambers. Judith Möller. Chapter in The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism, 2021, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/filter-bubbles-digital-echo-chambers-1-judith-m%C3%B6ller/e/10.4324/9781003004431-10?context=ubx&refId=032cd904-ad01-446e-bc0c-e92ace58a76a

Rolf Degen's take: State-of-the-art research review gives a clear rejection of the elite idea of an online audience entrenched in echo chambers and filter bubbles

From a conference... From Filter Bubbles to Fringe Bubbles: The Effects of Algorithmic News Curation on Polarization and Radicalization. Judith Möller. Universität Wien, Jan 14 2021. https://compcommlab.univie.ac.at/news-detailansicht/news/virtual-guest-lecture-on-filter-bubbles-by-dr-judith-moeller/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=fd943c7aadc1f9cdc7138bd312cf2e6e

The storm of the Capitol in Washington made it painfully obvious: Political polarization is rising and societal cohesion is dwindling. These developments have been traced to the emergence of filter bubbles on social media platforms. Social media platforms allegedly afford the creation of online echo-chambers in which sympathizers of an ideology or viewpoint surround themselves with attitude-confirming information, which further strengthens their existing beliefs. These walls created by self-selection are subsequently reinforced by algorithmic filter systems. Allegedly, algorithms—used by social network sites to curate the newsfeed—detect existing attitudes and automatically filter out information that could challenge these beliefs, leading to filter bubbles. 

However, a growing body of research has found only scant evidence of filter bubbles existing at the aggregate level of the population. I will present some of my research showing that algorithmic selection can even increase diversity compared to human selection in a data-scientific experiment using real-world data contributed by the largest news cooperation in the Netherlands. However, I will also show whether users are exposed to algorithmically curated news online at all depends on their political interest, by relying on a multi-method study that combines panel data with digital trace data.