Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America

by Jaime E. Settle

Why do Americans have such animosity for people who identify with the opposing political party? Jaime E. Settle argues that in the context of increasing partisan polarization among American political elites, the way we communicate on Facebook uniquely facilitates psychological polarization among the American public. Frenemies introduces the END Framework of social media interaction. END refers to a subset of content that circulates in a social media ecosystem: a personalized, quantified blend of politically informative 'expression', 'news', and 'discussion' seamlessly interwoven into a wider variety of socially informative content. Scrolling through the News Feed triggers a cascade of processes that result in negative attitudes about those who disagree with us politically. The inherent features of Facebook, paired with the norms of how people use the site, heighten awareness of political identity, bias the inferences people make about others' political views, and foster stereotyped evaluations of the political out-group.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Social Media

330 pages, Hardcover

Published August 30, 2018

Reviews

[Josh Bramlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly written, important book that I want to recommend to other political communication researchers. I thought this book had one of the better lit reviews I've come across in an academic book. It was filled with studies from 2014-2018 I hadn't come across before - I downloaded several articles from the references after finishing it. The analysis portion of the book was also interesting and readable - I am a fan of bar graphs and this book had plenty. I enjoyed how the author would often invite readers to conduct future research building upon hers. I would recommend having grad students read this book in any seminar on polarization or politics and social media. My only wish is that I had read it sooner so I could have started citing it sooner.

[NCHS Library]

From Follett: Argues that in the context of increasing partisan polarization among American political elites, the way we communicate on Facebook uniquely facilitates psychological polarization among the American public . . . Introduces the END Framework of social media interaction. END refers to a subset of content that circulates in a social media ecosystem: a personalized, quantified blend of politically informative 'expression,' 'news,' and 'discussion' seamlessly interwoven into a wider variety of socially informative content"--Amazon.

[Mills College Library]

302.231 S4958 2018

[Kelsey Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book for my political communication class