TY  - UNPD
A1  - Massoc, Elsa Clara
A1  - Lubda, Maximilian
T1  - Social media, polarization and democracy: a multi-methods analysis of polarized users' interactions on Reddit's r/WallStreetBets
T2  - SAFE working paper ; No. 337, LawFin Working Paper ; No. 28
N2  - In times of increased political polarization, the continuing existence of a deliberative arena where people with antagonistic views may engage with each other in non-violent ways is critical for democracy to live on. Social media are usually not conceived as such arenas. On the contrary, there has been widespread worry about their role in increasing polarization and political violence. This paper suggests a more positive impact of social media on democracy. Our analysis focuses on the subreddit “r/WallStreetBets” (r/WSB) - a finance-related forum that came under the spotlight when its users coordinated a financial attack on hedge funds during the Gamestop saga in early 2021. Based on an original method attributing partisanship scores to users, we present a network analysis of interactions between users at the opposite sides of the political spectrum on r/WSB. We then develop a content analysis of politically relevant threads in which polarized users participate. Our analyses show that r/WSB provides a rare space where users with antagonistic political leanings engage with each other, debate, and even cooperate.
T3  - LawFin Working Paper - 28 
T3  - SAFE working paper - 337 
KW  - social media
KW  - polarization
KW  - democracy
KW  - investment forum
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/64026
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-640268
UR  - https://ssrn.com/abstract=4006283
N1  - This research benefited from the support of the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE [grant number 123102] and was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) – project FOR 2774.
IS  - Date of first version: 17 December 2021
PB  - SAFE
CY  - Frankfurt am Main
ER  -