A plural platform of opinions or a basis for division and hostility? Facebook newsfeed framing and its impact on the Dutch political moral

Abstract

With this research I want to move beyond where other literature and large-scale studies on the impact of Facebook and new media have stopped. Previous scholarship has underexposed individuals’ experiences with the platform and its potential to steer our political stance on current societal issues by feeding into polarization. Which is surprising, since recent events and debates concerning Facebooks’ potential influence have caused a lot of uproar and has even led Mark Zuckerberg to face a public trial about the far-reaching data-mining and curation that has been done through Facebook news streams. Bearing that in mind, I have tried, through extensive studies, to scrutinize and question this issue and to pinpoint what impact Facebook has on Dutch citizens and their political stance. More so, I set out to thoroughly comprehend how the refugee crisis as a topic of great political significance might have been framed online through curated news streams and the ‘filter bubble’ and what this meant for the political perspectives of Dutch citizens. As a methodological approach, this research project has put the embodied experiences of 15 respondents, divided over three political positions, at the centre. This has been established through semi-structured interviews, feminist reflexivity and the constant questioning of online power dynamics. Throughout this exploratory project I have aimed to expose the online behaviour of the respondents and in particular how Facebook users deal with Facebook news streams they are faced with on an everyday basis. By laying bare affective responses and Facebook users’ attitudes I provide insight in how this daily curated news diet might shape us as individuals and our political morals. Many, critical feminist works and reflections on new media have proved to be a great a fundament to work with. Amongst those, ‘The spectatorship of suffering’ by Lilie Chouliarakie has offered an insight in how the online confrontation with the refugee crisis might serve a transformative potential in how Facebook users’ view this ongoing issue.