and Ideological Polarisation: Power Relations and Socio-Cultural Impact", Professor Castells reviewed the relationship between social media networks and ideological polarisation; and defined the interaction between them and the importance of the social and communication factor in the process of polarisation, as social media has become the predominant space of mass communication. However, he maintained that polarisation has deeper roots in the crisis of trust and political legitimacy around the world, itself resulting from the characteristics of media politics and the bureaucratisation and growing of corruption. Thus, social media enhances the role of the polarised factions in society but are not the cause of their radicalisation . Yet, social media amplifies and reinforces polarisation by exposing extreme positions on a large scale and because of the virality of messages in the internet environment. This, according to Castells, requires that social media be regulated, and polarisation be confronted by a re-democratisation of politics and greater transparency in the multimodal media system, for both mass communication and mass self-communication. Keywords: Social Media, Ideological Polarisation, Trust Crisis, Legitimacy Crisis.
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