La polarizzazione politica nell'era dei social media

Political polarization is a problem that afflicts most of the world's democracies and Italy is no exception. This trend, very simplistically, can be represented by the distance between two political extremes. A distance caused by visions, ideas, convictions and points of reference that do not reconcile but, on the contrary, jeopardize the dialogue between the parties and the search for a meeting point. These differences are a danger for the good governance of a Country because they can affect citizens as well as political subjects. If in the first case the polarization leads to radicalization, extremism and widespread hatred, in the second it turns into political immobility, in a dialectic aimed at discrediting the adversaries and in reckless propaganda. The goal of this work is to provide a definition of "polarization" that is as totalizing as possible and to understand where this phenomenon, that has afflicted our society for decades, comes from. The focus of this research, however, is to discover whether the media, and social media in particular, are influencing this trend. The research shows how the polarization is an extremely consolidated characteristic in the Italian society mainly for three reasons: first of all because deep social fractures are rooted in our country which historically divide society; secondly, because the Italian political system and the historic dichotomy between right and left form poles around which citizens naturally line up; ultimately, political competition, like any other competition, involves in itself polarizing factors. The analysis found that the new "populist parties" play a crucial role in raising the tone of competition and personalizing political propaganda. It is especially noticeable that these new formations tend to represent centres of aggregation of consensus on problem areas, that is, on post-ideological, functional and pragmatic dimensions of political competition. Populist parties represent, in a certain sense, the leitmotif of this research because their propaganda has found fertile ground on the Internet and they are the sides that have best exploited the new digital media. Regarding the relationship between public opinion and social media, the evidence that has arisen are three: first of all it is noted how citizens are polarized around single issues and from here there is a connection with populist propaganda; secondly, it was found that social media act as a perfect tool for participation and information for polarized users, but at the same time they can contribute to increasing this trend even in subjects who are not by nature due to technological mechanisms inherent the digital media, but also by psycho-social dynamics that are accidentally activated; in the end it is highlighted how, especially on social networks, polarization often turns into hate speech, extremism and radical positions. Social media must be observed from two different angles because, if on one hand a large number of researches confirm that they are favouring polarizing tendencies, on the other hand they are an environment in which polarization and divisiveness materialize and become visible and observable. In conclusion, political polarization is a problem that will not be resolved anytime soon and requires in the first place an effort by the politicians for a more genuine propaganda. Much must also be done in the field of social media regulation and in the fight against disinformation and fake news. In Italy, introducing digital literacy in schools and expanding the number of research in the field of social media and political polarization can be an excellent starting point.