Mapping and Matching Content Diversity and Bias in EU Online Social Networks

Introduction

PolarScopEU proposes an original application, tailored for the context of different EU countries, that will measure and map, in two-dimensional spaces, the polarization of their online social networks. This tool, to be made available first in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, addresses not only the impact that online political communication and misinformation are having nowadays on democratic institutions but also citizens’ unawareness of existing biases in the online political information that they are exposed to.

Application Features

More concretely, relying on automated analyses of social media content to assess politicization levels of multiple key issues, this application will allow its users to:

1. Better understand how they place, in terms of the online content that they create and consume, in two major dimensions of political content: diversity and bias.
2. Find out which actors are closer to them when it comes to the politicization of several important issues (e.g., European Integration, Immigration, Environment).

Additional Products

In order to create this application, PolarScopEU will develop two additional products of extreme value for researchers and organizations to study and monitor online political communication.

Innovative Measurement Tool

The first one is an innovative tool to measure, using alternative sources of text data, the levels of salience and contestation of different political issues.

Periodically Updated Database

The second product is a periodically updated database, for each country, with polarization and issue politicization scores for an extensive list of national actors, including political parties, news media, and other key opinion makers.

Benefits

These products will facilitate the comparison of issue politicization across countries, time periods, and actors and originate an innovative polarization index of online political communication in the EU countries.