The Role of Social Media in Shaping Political Discourse and Public Opinion in the Digital Age

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the impact of social media in forming political dialogue, attitude formation, polarization, and activism in the political society in the digital era. However, adopting a qualitative research approach this study interviewed participants and analyzed the content of their posts to assess the impact of social media in the political activities and spread of information. The details show that political discussions are enforced by social media, and customers are guided to the extremes and hate. In the study, the role of fake news and bais was established in the formation of opinions among the users with many users being unable to distinguish between the genuine news and fake news. The current research also shows that social media has a unique function in both as catalyst for political events and as means of digitized activism which on the other side also leads to low-effort activism or “slacktivism”. As such, this research fills the existing gaps in the literature by illustrating a better and more nuanced approach of understanding the both the opportunities and challenges that social media poses in the political sphere- and how it can, at the same time, both empower people’s political participation and also escalate polarization. This paper concludes by proposing the areas and recommendations in relation to studying the functionality of social media for civil discourse and depolarization of the society.