Date of Award

Spring 5-4-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Toby Bolsen

Second Advisor

Judd Thornton

Third Advisor

Sarah Allen Gershon

Abstract

Social media serves as a way for people to connect. People can choose who they connect with, this can cause echo chambers to appear online and can also cause in/out groups to become present. This thesis will examine echo chambers and in/out groups using a content analysis of comments on news media posts on Facebook. The two issues being examined are abortion and immigration. We will be looking at three news media pages: Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC News. What the content analysis will seek out to find is that the partisan news sources Fox News and MSNBC will have echo chambers of information and will attack a person of the out-group if they comment. These echo chambers and in/out-group behaviors could lead to other problems such as polarization.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/28909764

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