Influence of media on collective debates

TL;DR

This paper presents a computational model of opinion dynamics influenced by media and gossip, showing how different media strategies and network structures can lead to diverse and stable opinion coexistence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel opinion dynamics model that incorporates media competition, polarization, and complex connectivity patterns, reflecting real-world information dissemination.

Findings

Multiple polarized sources lead to coexistence of diverse opinions.

Media strategies significantly influence opinion stability.

Complex network structures affect the formation of opinion clusters.

Abstract

The information system (T.V., newspapers, blogs, social network platforms) and its inner dynamics play a fundamental role on the evolution of collective debates and thus on the public opinion. In this work we address such a process focusing on how the current inner strategies of the information system (competition, customer satisfaction) once combined with the gossip may affect the opinions dynamics. A reinforcement effect is particularly evident in the social network platforms where several and incompatible cultures coexist (e.g, pro or against the existence of chemical trails and reptilians, the new world order conspiracy and so forth). We introduce a computational model of opinion dynamics which accounts for the coexistence of media and gossip as separated but interdependent mechanisms influencing the opinions evolution. Individuals may change their opinions under the contemporary pressure of the information supplied by the media and the opinions of their social contacts. We stress the effect of the media communication patterns by considering both the simple case where each medium mimics the behavior of the most successful one (in order to maximize the audience) and the case where there is polarization and thus competition among media reported information (in order to preserve and satisfy their segmented audience). Finally, we first model the information cycle as in the case of traditional main stream media (i.e, when every medium knows about the format of all the others) and then, to account for the effect of the Internet, on more complex connectivity patterns (as in the case of the web based information). We show that multiple and polarized information sources lead to stable configurations where several and distant opinions coexist.