Media Use and Political Polarization in Taiwan

• In Event: Media and Political Polarization in Taiwan

Abstract

Political polarization has become a widespread phenomenon in some major democratic countries over the past decades. In Taiwan, such phenomenon should be understood as a type of affect polarization rather than ideological polarization. And it could result from biases of traditional media outlets and the rise of social media. This paper analyzes survey data collected by Taiwan Institute for Government and Communication Research (TIGCR) to uncover the linkage between media use and perception of political polarization. As different types of media exposures may contribute to explain how voters’ attitudes can be shaped, this empirical study tends to verify the hypothesis that the increased affect polarization in Taiwan is part of the result of media environment

Authors

• Eric Chen-hua Yu, National Chengchi University (Taipei)

• Yi-ching Hsiao, Tamkang University