Media/Learning
Maps of Twitter activity show how political polarization manifests online and why divides are so hard to bridge.
John Kelly and Camille François have been filtering who is following whom on Twitter, and what they’re interested in. They cluster like-minded people together, and then color-code the kinds of content they commonly share. The maps they make with the data show the real shape of our polarized political landscape. You won’t be surprised to learn that “the middle is a lot weaker than it looks, and this makes public discourse vulnerable both to extremists at home and to manipulation by outside actors such as Russia.” But, I do want to know what the truth looks like, especially when that truth is uncomfortable. 
Article: This is What Filter Bubbles Actually Look Like


 

Image via Democratic Socialists of America