| Though much research has been conducted on the development of the Internet and its role in helping to connect previously discordant political populations through the use of chat rooms and message boards, thus far little attention in academia has been paid to the relatively new platform of social networking and its potential to either promote or discourage "cyberbalkanization." An exciting medium with seemingly endless potential, without further study the eventual and ultimate impact of social media on both the democratic process and civic engagement in the United States cannot be fully understood. This master's thesis aims to explore the topic of social media and political cyberbalkanization and to determine the extent to which the phenomenon occurs on the popular social networking site Facebook. An extensive review of prior work on the topic is first conducted and is then followed by an outline of the current effort's methodology, its results and finally an analysis of the research's findings and their implications for the future of social media and democracy in the 21st century. |
