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Politically-engaged social media users stuck in echo chambers, study finds

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

February 4, 2017 | 2 min read

Politically engaged Twitter users are more likely to interact with others who support the same party and share articles from publications which match their beliefs confirming the existence of online echo chambers.

According to a study of 2,000 Twitter users from thinktank Demos, Labour supporters were weighted more towards publications Demos classes as centre-left or leftwing, whereas Ukip supporters were more engaged with ‘alternative’ media outlets such as Breitbart and Infowars as well as accounting for more than half of links posted to articles on the Daily Mail, Daily Express, the Sun and Guido Fawkes.

Studying the tweets from those who publicly identified as Labour, Tory, Ukip or SNP between May and August last year, the results found that supporters were more likely to retweet or mention other users from the same party.

Supporters of all parties were also less like to interact with rival party supporters with the highest rate of crossover coming from Tory and Ukip supporters.

Report author Alex Krasodomski-Jones commented that though the study wasn’t representative of the broader population of Twitter users, it did provide a small of Twitter’s “political classes” who were more likely to be engaged in politics outside of the platform.

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