Digital Media and Politics: Effects of the Great Information and Communication Divides

A substantial body of scholarship has long explored the ways emerging media may foster and also hamper an informed and engaged citizenry. Individually, digital media have become an integral part of citizens’ political life as a growing number of people around the world use digital media technologies for information and communication. Collectively, digital media have also constituted an important platform that people use to coordinate among themselves and mobilize each other. Nevertheless, while distributing informative and mobilizing messages, digital media also facilitate socio-political factors that raise concern over the dissemination of misinformation, information divides and political polarization. This article showcases a broad variety of studies included in a special volume encapsulating some of these important issues.