Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism
This article considers claims made by various authors that the use of filtering and recommendation technology on the Internet can deprive certain communities of feedback, and instead amplify groups' viewpoints, leading to polarization of opinion across communities, and increases in extremism. T...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37184/ |
| _version_ | 1848795408823746560 |
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| author | O'Hara, Kieron Stevens, David |
| author_facet | O'Hara, Kieron Stevens, David |
| author_sort | O'Hara, Kieron |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article considers claims made by various authors that the use of filtering and recommendation technology on the Internet can deprive certain communities of feedback, and instead amplify groups' viewpoints, leading to polarization of opinion across communities, and increases in extremism. The ‘echo chamber’ arguments of Cass Sunstein are taken as representative of this point of view, and examined in detail in the context of a range of research, theoretical and empirical, quantitative and qualitative, in political science and the sociology of religion, from the last quarter century. The conclusion is that the case has not been made either (a) that echo chambers are necessarily harmful, or (b) that the Internet is complicit in their formation. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:31:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-37184 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:31:37Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-371842020-05-04T17:06:25Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37184/ Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism O'Hara, Kieron Stevens, David This article considers claims made by various authors that the use of filtering and recommendation technology on the Internet can deprive certain communities of feedback, and instead amplify groups' viewpoints, leading to polarization of opinion across communities, and increases in extremism. The ‘echo chamber’ arguments of Cass Sunstein are taken as representative of this point of view, and examined in detail in the context of a range of research, theoretical and empirical, quantitative and qualitative, in political science and the sociology of religion, from the last quarter century. The conclusion is that the case has not been made either (a) that echo chambers are necessarily harmful, or (b) that the Internet is complicit in their formation. Wiley 2015-04-19 Article PeerReviewed O'Hara, Kieron and Stevens, David (2015) Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism. Policy & Internet, 7 (4). pp. 401-422. ISSN 1944-2866 Extremism; Radicalism; Internet; Echo Chambers; Public forums; Networks http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/poi3.88/full doi:10.1002/poi3.88 doi:10.1002/poi3.88 |
| spellingShingle | Extremism; Radicalism; Internet; Echo Chambers; Public forums; Networks O'Hara, Kieron Stevens, David Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title | Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title_full | Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title_fullStr | Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title_short | Echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the Internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| title_sort | echo chambers and online radicalism: assessing the internet's complicity in violent extremism |
| topic | Extremism; Radicalism; Internet; Echo Chambers; Public forums; Networks |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37184/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37184/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37184/ |