Current diagnoses that democracy is in crisis at the beginning of the 21st century share a common argumentative reference point: the (implicit) reference to the dysfunctional constitution of the political public sphere which is currently undergoing structural change. The rise of social media platforms is considered as one of its main constituents. While social media were considered to make the public arena more open and thus more responsive, it was also argued that these platforms lead to new mechanisms of fragmentation and exclusion, an erosion of norms in public debate and a loss of trust in traditional institutions.

During the last three years, a network of researchers from different fields has worked towards a better understanding of the impact of these developments by providing better empirical evidence, identifying and modeling main causal mechanisms and discussing ways of improving the capacity of social media to contribute to the functioning of the public arena in a liberal democracy. In this final conference we will present the latest results from the project complemented by perspectives from external experts.