How The American Media Landscape is Polarizing the Country
Americans are more polarized than ever (fig. 1). The Pew Research Center illustrates the increasingly stark divide between partisans on important topics such as “the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a long list of other issues.”[1] Partisans believe that their differences are not only about politics but also about “core American values.”[2] In his book, Why We’re Polarized, Klein argues that the divisions between the two parties have grown over time, as people’s social identities have slowly become intertwined with their political identities.[3] In a seminal paper on political division, Carothers and O’Donohue confirm that a “powerful alignment of ideology, race, and religion renders America’s divisions unusually encompassing and profound. It is hard to find another example of polarization in the world that fuses all three major types of identity divisions in a similar way.”[4] An essential driver of this polarization is the changing media landscape in the U.S., particularly that of cable news and social media. Traditional and social media channels have exacerbated political polarization by spreading disinformation to their viewers, posing a threat to American democracy.
