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Migration as a polarizing issue on social media

Social media are one of the main arenas in which European citizens discuss policy issues such as migration and in which opinion formation on such issues takes place through the sharing and consumption of information and views. At the same time, it is an arena in which traditional and alternative media, NGOs, and politicians share their views on migration and interact with citizens to promote their agenda. For this reason, social media are a melting pot of different actors and interests, and a lens through which the European discourse on migration can be studied. Social media offer both, a huge potential for, on the one side, the free and democratic exchange and, on the other, for polarization and manipulation of the European discourse on migration.

Comparing Policy Actors’ Interaction with Each Other in Political Communication of Refugee Protectio

Opinions of policy actors on migration and refugee policy are increasingly polarized due to the various economic and migrant “crises”. Especially in the current context of these crises, governments have to engage increasingly more in information-spreading activity to persuade their citizens to support their international commitment to protect refugees. Micro-blogging platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube, which are not subject to strict fact-checks and 4 editor-scrutiny like conventional media, empower policy actors without the necessary resources for expensive media campaigns and with non-mainstream political preferences.