A systematic review on social media echo chambers and political persuasion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25139/jsk.v9i2.10041Keywords:
Social Media, Echo Chambers, Political Persuasion, polarisationAbstract
This study addresses the increasing concern surrounding social media echo chambers and their impact on political discourse. While echo chambers are often framed as a universal phenomenon, reinforcing existing beliefs and limiting exposure to diverse perspectives, this review recognises that cultural, political, and infrastructural factors significantly influence how echo chambers form and operate in different contexts. Factors such as social media regulation, censorship policies, and linguistic diversity play crucial roles in shaping these dynamics beyond Western settings. This research aimed to undercover how algorithmic curation, selective exposure, and socio-political contexts shape social media echo chambers and political persuasion. It seeks to analyse cognitive and affective factors reinforcing partisan beliefs and misinformation, evaluate cross-cultural differences, and identify strategies to foster cross-partisan dialogue and democratic engagement. This study employed a Systematic Literature Review approach, drawing upon the Scopus Database to evaluate existing studies, identify key themes, and highlight areas for future research. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to ensure methodological rigour and transparency. Key findings reveal that algorithmic curation and selective exposure, combined with the sharing of emotionally charged content, systematically limit exposure to contradicting evidence, allowing disinformation to thrive unchecked within insular communities. Furthermore, affective polarisation intensifies partisan hostility, making users more receptive to accepting false or exaggerated claims. Intensifying partisan hostility creates an emotional environment where individuals become more likely to accept false or exaggerated claims aligned with their political identity. The study recommends that future research should focus on exploring the psychological drivers of echo chamber participation, developing strategies for mitigating the impact of disinformation, and examining the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting critical thinking and media literacy.
References
Ackermann, K., & Stadelmann-Steffen, I. (2022). Voting in the Echo Chamber? Patterns of Political Online Activities and Voting Behavior in Switzerland. Swiss Political Science Review, 28(2), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12498
Ackland, R., Gumbert, F., Pütz, O., Gertzel, B., & Orlikowski, M. (2024). Reciprocal Communication and Political Deliberation on Twitter. Social Sciences, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010005
Adlung, S., Lünenborg, M., & Raetzsch, C. (2021). Pitching gender in a racist tune: The affective publics of the #120decibel campaign. Media and Communication, 9(2), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i2.3749
AlAfnan, M. A. (2025). The Role of Memes in Shaping Political Discourse on Social Media. Studies in Media and Communication, 13(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.11114/smc.v13i2.7482
Arce-García, S., Said-Hung, E., & Mottareale-Calvanese, D. (2023). Types of Astroturfing campaigns of disinformative and polarised content in times of pandemic in Spain. Icono14, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v21i1.1890
Aydin, Z., Fuess, A., Sunier, T., & Vázquez, A. G. (2021). The web of hate: Fragmentation of media authority and its link to right-wing populism and cyber islamophobia. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 37(3), 231–243. https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2021-3703-13
Bene, M. (2020). Does context matter? A cross-country investigation of the effects of the media context on external and internal political efficacy. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 61(4), 264–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715220930065
Bossetta, M., Dutceac Segesten, A., & Bonacci, D. (2023). Reconceptualizing Cross-Cutting Political Expression on Social Media: A Case Study of Facebook Comments During the 2016 Brexit Referendum. Political Communication, 40(6), 719–741. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2023.2222370
Boulianne, S., & Koc-Michalska, K. (2022). The Role of Personality in Political Talk and Like-Minded Discussion. International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(1), 285–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161221994096
Boulianne, S., Koc-Michalska, K., & Bimber, B. (2020). Right-wing populism, social media and echo chambers in Western democracies. New Media and Society, 22(4), 683–699. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819893983
Castro, O. J., Azócar, D. A., & dos Santos, M. L. B. (2021). “A Vital testimony confirmed…”: Sources and Networks Polarisation over Catrillanca’s Case on Twitter. Cuadernos.Info, 49, 26–50. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.49.27509
Chan, C. K., Zhao, M. M., & Lee, P. S. N. (2023). Determinants of escape from echo chambers: The predictive power of political orientation, social media use, and demographics. Global Media and China, 8(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364221140820
Cheng, Z., Marcos-Marne, H., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2024). Birds of a Feather Get Angrier Together: Social Media News Use and Social Media Political Homophily as Antecedents of Political Anger. Political Behavior, 46(2), 1171–1187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09864-z
Dubois, E., Minaeian, S., Paquet-Labelle, A., & Beaudry, S. (2020). Who to Trust on Social Media: How Opinion Leaders and Seekers Avoid Disinformation and Echo Chambers. Social Media and Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913993
Ecker-Ehrhardt, M. (2023). Building bridges or digging the trench? International organizations, social media, and polarized fragmentation. Review of International Organizations. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-023-09517-0
Elder, A. (2020). The interpersonal is political: unfriending to promote civic discourse on social media. Ethics and Information Technology, 22(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-019-09511-4
Enjolras, B., & Salway, A. (2023). Homophily and polarisation on political twitter during the 2017 Norwegian election. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-022-01018-z
Erickson, J., Yan, B., & Huang, J. (2023). Bridging Echo Chambers? Understanding Political Partisanship through Semantic Network Analysis. Social Media and Society, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231186368
Esteve Del Valle, M., Broersma, M., & Ponsioen, A. (2022). Political Interaction Beyond Party Lines: Communication Ties and Party Polarisation in Parliamentary Twitter Networks. Social Science Computer Review, 40(3), 736–755. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439320987569
Franch, P., & Micó, J. L. (2021). Politics and journalism: A self-referential bubble in social media: Twitter domains shared by representatives and journalists in Spain. Transinformacao, 33. https://doi.org/10.1590/2318-0889202133e200025
García-Orosa, B. (2021). Disinformation, social media, bots, and astroturfing: the fourth wave of digital democracy. Profesional de La Informacion, 30(6). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.nov.03
Green, J., Mccabe, S., Shugars, S., Chwe, H., Horgan, L., Cao, S., & Lazer, D. (2025). Curation Bubbles. American Political Science Review, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000984
Gunnar Ólafsson, J., & Jóhannsdóttir, V. (2024). Polarisation, News Consumption, and Beliefs in Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories: Early Signs of the Fragmentation of the Public Sphere in Iceland. Javnost, 31(3), 440–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2024.2383905
Hall, N. A. (2023). Trajectories towards Political Engagement on Facebook around Brexit: Beyond Affordances for Understanding Racist and Right-Wing Populist Mobilisations Online. Sociology, 57(3), 569–585. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221104012
Harel, T. O., Jameson, J. K., & Maoz, I. (2020). The Normalization of Hatred: Identity, Affective Polarisation, and Dehumanization on Facebook in the Context of Intractable Political Conflict. Social Media and Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913983
Israel-Turim, V., Micó-Sanz, J. L., & Diez Bosch, M. (2022). Who Did Spanish Politicians Start Following on Twitter? Homophilic Tendencies among the Political Elite. Social Sciences, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11070292
Januškevičiūtė, J. (2022). Threats to the Process of Receiving Political News from Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles on Social Media. Information & Media, 94, 39–52. https://doi.org/10.15388/im.2022.94.64
Jiang, X., Guo, Y., & Dong, P. (2024). Determinants of Institutionalized Political Participation in Elderly Women: Insights From a Chinese Empirical Study. International Journal of Electronic Government Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEGR.345398
Lai, A., Brown, M. A., Bisbee, J., Tucker, J. A., Nagler, J., & Bonneau, R. (2024). Estimating the Ideology of Political YouTube Videos. Political Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2023.42
Macdonald, M., Russell, A., & Hua, W. (2023). Negative Sentiment and Congressional Cue-Taking on Social Media. PS - Political Science and Politics, 56(2), 201–206. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096522001299
Masip, P., Suau, J., & Ruiz-Caballero, C. (2020). Incidental exposure to non-like-minded news through social media: Opposing voices in echo-chambers’ news feeds. Media and Communication, 8(4), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i4.3146
Neely, S. R. (2021). Politically Motivated Avoidance in Social Networks: A Study of Facebook and the 2020 Presidential Election. Social Media and Society, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211055438
Palau-Sampio, D., & López-García, G. (2022). Communication and crisis in the public space: Dissolution and uncertainty. Profesional de La Informacion, 31(3). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.may.16
Pérez-Escolar, M., Lilleker, D., & Tapia-Frade, A. (2023). A Systematic Literature Review of the Phenomenon of Disinformation and Misinformation. In Media and Communication (Vol. 11, Issue 2, pp. 76–87). Cogitatio Press. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6453
Peterson, P. S. (2022). The Public Sphere of Democracy and the Wisdom Tradition. Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 8(1), 133–158. https://doi.org/10.30965/23642807-bja10041
Rose, K., & Rohlinger, D. A. (2024). Political Influencers and Their Social Media Audiences during the 2021 Arizona Audit. Socius, 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231241259680
Ruiz-Dodobara, F., Uribe-Bravo, K.-A., & Chaparro, H. (2024). Social Media, Affective Polarisation, and Collective Action in Peru. Communication & Society, 39–55. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.37.4.39-55
Santos-D’amorim, K., & Macedo Dos Santos, R. N. (2022). From algorithmic personalisation to informational wars: The dynamics of (dis)information bubbles around the september 7, 2021. Encontros Bibli, 27. https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2022.e86628
Shamir, A., Oser, J., & Grinberg, N. (2024). Who Is Curating My Political Feed? Characterizing Political Exposure of Registered U.S. Voters on Twitter. International Journal of Press/Politics, 29(3), 774–794. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612231213291
Steinfeld, N., & Lev-on, A. (2024). Exposure to diverse political views in contemporary media environments. Frontiers in Communication, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1384706
Thelwall, M., Kousha, K., & Thelwall, S. (2021). Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy on English-language Twitter. Profesional de La Informacion, 30(2). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.mar.12
Törnberg, P., & Törnberg, A. (2024). Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics. New Media and Society, 26(8), 4511–4533. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221122915
Tsai, W. H. S., Tao, W., Chuan, C. H., & Hong, C. (2020). Echo chambers and social mediators in public advocacy issue networks. Public Relations Review, 46(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101882
Wazzan, A., & Aldamen, Y. (2023). How University Students Evaluate the Role of Social Media in Political Polarisation: Perspectives of a Sample of Turkish Undergraduate and Graduate Students. Journalism and Media, 4(4), 1001–1020. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia4040064
Weigel, M., & Gitomer, A. (2024). Hate-sharing: A case study of its prevalence and impact on Gab. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241245349
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Jurnal Studi Komunikasi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice, which will apply to this submission if and when it is published by this journal (comments to the editor can be added below).
