När misstro blir politik - Medielandskapets roll i affektiv polarisering och minskad demokratisk tillit i USA
(2025) STVK04 20251Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- As political polarization in the United States has intensified in recent decades, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the role of the media in shaping democratic trust and public discourse. This report aims to compare two periods of a highly polarized American political climate to examine the contributing factors for the high degree of affective polarization that can be observed today and the correlating lower degrees of trust in government and media. In particular, transformations in the media environment have been identified as central to understanding the mechanisms behind growing affective divisions and declining institutional confidence. Robert D. Putnam's works around social capital which is proposed to have been... (More)
- As political polarization in the United States has intensified in recent decades, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the role of the media in shaping democratic trust and public discourse. This report aims to compare two periods of a highly polarized American political climate to examine the contributing factors for the high degree of affective polarization that can be observed today and the correlating lower degrees of trust in government and media. In particular, transformations in the media environment have been identified as central to understanding the mechanisms behind growing affective divisions and declining institutional confidence. Robert D. Putnam's works around social capital which is proposed to have been waning due the unprecedented collapse in civic, social associational and political life since the 1960’s. Whilst others such as Barberá et al. theorize that the ability for bottom-up steering of politics is perhaps greater than ever before. By comparatively analysing media and civic consensus around the Watergate-scandal from the 70’s and the Storming of the capitol in 2021 this report concludes concludes that the transformation of the media landscape, from centralized broadcast networks to decentralized, polarized digital platforms, has played a crucial role in intensifying affective polarization and weakening democratic trust in the United States through a mechanism which we call toxic bonding capital. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9189680
- author
- Thorell, Herman LU and Åkesson, Einar LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVK04 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Affektiv polarisering, Medielandskap, Socialt kapital, USA, Watergate, Stormningen av Kapitolium, Post-truth
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9189680
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-08 11:03:26
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 11:03:26
@misc{9189680,
abstract = {{As political polarization in the United States has intensified in recent decades, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the role of the media in shaping democratic trust and public discourse. This report aims to compare two periods of a highly polarized American political climate to examine the contributing factors for the high degree of affective polarization that can be observed today and the correlating lower degrees of trust in government and media. In particular, transformations in the media environment have been identified as central to understanding the mechanisms behind growing affective divisions and declining institutional confidence. Robert D. Putnam's works around social capital which is proposed to have been waning due the unprecedented collapse in civic, social associational and political life since the 1960’s. Whilst others such as Barberá et al. theorize that the ability for bottom-up steering of politics is perhaps greater than ever before. By comparatively analysing media and civic consensus around the Watergate-scandal from the 70’s and the Storming of the capitol in 2021 this report concludes concludes that the transformation of the media landscape, from centralized broadcast networks to decentralized, polarized digital platforms, has played a crucial role in intensifying affective polarization and weakening democratic trust in the United States through a mechanism which we call toxic bonding capital.}},
author = {{Thorell, Herman and Åkesson, Einar}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{När misstro blir politik - Medielandskapets roll i affektiv polarisering och minskad demokratisk tillit i USA}},
year = {{2025}},
}