Modelling the user polarization of echo chambers, using network science methods

The online social media provides an opportunity for people with common interests to form communities of opinion. The information related to the different narratives creates communities (echo chambers) in which the members reinforce their common views during their communication, thus forming a homogeneous and polarized opinion. During the research, a network model was created, which can be used to model how a piece of news affects the user polarizations of the members in the echo chamber, as well as in which direction and to what extent the polarization of the group changes as a result. The results of the simulations are consistent with the results of network science and psychological research related to echo chambers, which proves that the model is suitable for general modeling of echo chambers. Another result of the research is that if the parameters of a specific echo chamber are known, then its unique polarization profile can be determined with the help of the model. This can open up new opportunities in the field of online marketing, as well as help in combating the effects of false information spread in online media.