Medidas de polarización en redes socialesPolarization measures on online social networks

Abstract

This doctoral thesis focuses on the study of the measurement of polarizationin social networks. Although there is a relative consensus on the conceptualization of polarization in the literature, this is not the case with its measurement. Throughout the works published in recent decades, there is a wide range of polarization measures that are shown to be in dissonance with each other and, on occasions, in contradiction with the theoretical conceptualization of polarization. With all this, throughout this work an exhaustive study of the main polarization measures is carried out in order to know its nature and behavior in greater depth. Likewise, polarization scenarios are studied, analyzed and compared to know the main characteristics of the consequences of such polarization in social behavior. As a natural continuation of the above, a fuzzy bipolarization measure is proposed with the aim of overcoming some of the deficiencies found in the literature, presenting a more realistic and consistent polarization measure with the concept. Thus, the proposed measure is applied in the real case of political polarization in social networks during the COVID-19 pandemic...