News Sharing, Gatekeeping, and Polarization: A Study of the #Bolsonaro Election

Abstract

What explains news sharing in polarized social media environments? Will polarization of the audiences further polarize news organizations? In this article, we connect existing theories of news sharing and gatekeeping to describe the conditions under which social media polarization will increase polarization among news organizations. Our results show that a polarized readership will further polarize news organizations. However, polarization will be larger for organizations with lower reputations. To test our theory, we introduce readers to a statistical design that estimates news sharing behaviour from observational social media data. The model allows researchers to study the relationship between news sharing behaviour and gatekeeping in political communication.