De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Political Communication

The book shines a light on two different perspectives when it comes to the influence that social media has on politics: For advocates of a digital democracy, the abundance of unfiltered information social media provides constitutes a decentralisation of power relations within the body politic, and a removal of old hierarchies. Conversely, critical theorists argue social media has created societal and political dislocations, which have eroded rational debate in favour of ideological polarisa...