Populo Volume 2 Issue 1

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Figure 2: Image sourced from: ‘Filter bubbles’. (2023, August 3). AllSides

Echo Chambers:

‘Echo Chamber’ is a term that was arguably first adopted by Cass R. Sunstein

in 2007 in his work ‘Republic.com 2.0’, which describes a ‘social epistemic

structure’ in which an individual actively ‘excludes’ and ‘discredits’ information

that does not align with their original beliefs through both online and offline mechanisms. 79 This entails the individual following biased accounts and solely interacting with content and peers who are like-minded in their ideologies. 80 For

example, a person who believes that COVID-19 is a hoax may join a Facebook

group with other people who share this belief, search for evidence that will defend

their claims, and solely interact with like-minded content. An echo chamber

allows these groups to communicate and connect with other like-minded individuals, thus reinforcing their beliefs. 81

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Figure 2: Image sourced from: ‘Filter bubbles’. (2023, August 3). AllSides.

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