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Paper Number
ICIS2025-1902
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Disruptive events—such as wars or terrorist attacks—are emotionally intense, unpredictable, and socially destabilizing. During such events, social media serves as a critical infrastructure for information sharing, user interaction, and narrative formation. This study examines how affective polarization unfolds on social media through two distinct interaction levels: 1) content-level interaction and 2) user-level interaction. Drawing on media event theory and the identity-threat hypothesis, we investigate how emotion-based and structure-based framing influence affective polarization during disruptive events. We propose a multi-level model using YouTube data from CNN and Fox News coverage of the “Israel at War” playlist. Our preliminary findings provide new insights into how framing contributes to affective polarization at different interaction levels during disruptive events. Our work contributes to the literature on media framing, user interaction, and polarization in IS research, and may inform practical strategies for content moderation and crisis communication on social media.
Recommended Citation
Tanyel, Ilkay Nehir; Valecha, Rohit Valecha; and Fan, Yanlai, "Crisis in the Comments: How Emotion-Based and Structure-Based Frames Drive Affective Polarization on Social Media During Disruptive Events" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 9.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/is_media/is_media/9
Crisis in the Comments: How Emotion-Based and Structure-Based Frames Drive Affective Polarization on Social Media During Disruptive Events
Disruptive events—such as wars or terrorist attacks—are emotionally intense, unpredictable, and socially destabilizing. During such events, social media serves as a critical infrastructure for information sharing, user interaction, and narrative formation. This study examines how affective polarization unfolds on social media through two distinct interaction levels: 1) content-level interaction and 2) user-level interaction. Drawing on media event theory and the identity-threat hypothesis, we investigate how emotion-based and structure-based framing influence affective polarization during disruptive events. We propose a multi-level model using YouTube data from CNN and Fox News coverage of the “Israel at War” playlist. Our preliminary findings provide new insights into how framing contributes to affective polarization at different interaction levels during disruptive events. Our work contributes to the literature on media framing, user interaction, and polarization in IS research, and may inform practical strategies for content moderation and crisis communication on social media.
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Comments
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