Conversaciones políticas en Facebook. Explorando el papel de la homofilia en la argumentación y la interacción comunicativa

  1. Lidia Valera-Ordaz
  2. Dafne Calvo
  3. Guillermo López-García
Journal:
Revista Latina de Comunicación Social

ISSN: 1138-5820

Year of publication: 2018

Issue: 73

Pages: 55-73

Type: Article

DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2018-1245 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Revista Latina de Comunicación Social

Abstract

Research on online political talk has been overwhelmingly influenced by deliberative theory, as a result of the big hopes originally placed on the Internet capacity to revolutionize politics. However, two decades of empirical research point out that these informal communicative interactions hardly resemble deliberative ideals. In this study, we explore if Facebook contributors who share ideological stances are more likely to a) justify their points of view and b) interact with each other. We apply content analysis to a sample of 2,800 comments published on the Facebook walls of the four mayor Spanish political parties during General Election campaign 2015. Findings show that homophily is negatively related to both argumentation and interaction. It is the outsiders who are much more likely to reason their opinions, while it is those who hold neutral views who are more inclined towards interaction.

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