Echo chamber effect on social media and communicative action: A review of anonymous political accounts on Twitter

In this study, the echo chamber effect on social media is discussed through anonymous political accounts on Twitter, in connection with Habermas's theory of communicative action. The echo chamber effect is a learning process that can accelerate prejudice and polarization, in which harmonious messages are amplified by group members with similar codes and where in-group trust and the meanings produced are reinforced, while those who do not fit with the group, and also their ideas, are systematically distrusted and isolated. The communicative action, on the other hand, is the process of interpretation and social integration between equal and autonomous subjects on an unpressured ground where there are ideal discourse conditions, aiming to raise mutual common understanding and rationalize the lifeworld by negotiating the validity claims in accordance with the argumentation processes. The sample of this research, which uses the content analysis method where quantitative and qualitative are combined, is 14 anonymous political Twitter accounts that were found to have the most followers to reflect the political structure in Turkey in the selected period and their 700 anonymous and 700 real-looking followers. The data collected with the Twitonomy digital data analysis tool have been reported largely with the traditional method within the framework of the research model. The research is based on digital quantitative measurements in the dataset of 3.934,123 posts, contextual analysis of 80,644 posts from various angles, and actor analyzes aimed at mapping the discourse hierarchy of the sample group. As a result of the study, according to the research model and definitions, 69.07% of the political accounts in the sample group with a political homophily level of 79.32% were determined as "political echo chamber effect" and 26.97% were determined as "high level of political echo chamber effect". While the signals of approval bias, distrust and polarization were relatively evident in political calculations, it was observed that the communication operating with these signals weakened the potential for communicative action and highlighted strategic actions. On the other hand, in the learning and socialization process in the sample groups, it was seen that a stratified communication structure dominated by elite discourses with relatively biased and contrasting aspects was formed and that the users were passive and weakly influenced by this structure. This communication, in which elite discoursers are influential, reflects the vertical hierarchical nature in managerial communication. Therefore, it does not coincide with the rationalization process of communicative action, which is based on horizontal symmetrical interactions and reciprocity between equals and allows reflexive attitudes. Finally, there are hints that anonymous accounts cause more echo chamber effect at some levels, however there are no general differences between them and real-looking users at some levels (to a lesser extent).