IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/revint/v20y2025i1d10.1007_s11558-023-09517-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building bridges or digging the trench? International organizations, social media, and polarized fragmentation

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt

    (Universität Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract

Communication departments of international organizations (IOs) are important intermediaries of global governance who increasingly use social media to reach out to citizens directly. Social media pose new challenges for IO communication such as a highly competitive economy of attention and the fragmentation of the audiences driven by networked curation of content and selective exposure. In this context, communication departments have to make tough choices about what to communicate and how, aggravating inherent tensions between IO communication as comprehensive public information (aimed at institutional transparency)—and partisan political advocacy (aimed at normative change). If IO communication focuses on advocacy it might garner substantial resonance on social media. Such advocacy nevertheless fails to the extent that it fosters the polarized fragmentation of networked communication and undermines the credibility of IO communication as a source of trustworthy information across polarized “echo chambers.” The paper illustrates this argument through a content and social network analysis of Twitter communication on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). Remarkably, instead of facilitating cross-cluster communication (“building bridges”) Twitter handles run by the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UNDGC) seem to have substantially fostered ideological fragmentation (“digging the trench”) by their way of partisan retweeting, mentioning, and (hash)tagging.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2025. "Building bridges or digging the trench? International organizations, social media, and polarized fragmentation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 157-187, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:20:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11558-023-09517-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11558-023-09517-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11558-023-09517-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11558-023-09517-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maximilian Conrad, 2021. "Post-Truth Politics, Digital Media, and the Politicization of the Global Compact for Migration," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 301-311.
    2. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2023. "Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 213-225.
    3. Adler-Nissen, Rebecca & Zarakol, Ayşe, 2021. "Struggles for Recognition: The Liberal International Order and the Merger of Its Discontents," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 611-634, February.
    4. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2018. "Self-legitimation in the face of politicization: Why international organizations centralized public communication," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 519-546, December.
    5. Peters, Bernhard & Sifft, Stefanie & Wimmel, Andreas & Brüggemann, Michael & Kleinen-Von Königslöw, Katharina, 2005. "7 National and transnational public spheres: the case of the EU," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(S1), pages 139-160, March.
    6. Liesbet Hooghe & Tobias Lenz & Gary Marks, 2019. "Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 731-743, December.
    7. Mark Copelovitch & Jon C. W. Pevehouse, 2019. "International organizations in a new era of populist nationalism," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 169-186, June.
    8. Maximilian Conrad, 2021. "Post-Truth Politics, Digital Media, and the Politicization of the Global Compact for Migration," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 301-311.
    9. Ingrid Volkmer, 2003. "The Global Network Society and the Global Public Sphere," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 46(1), pages 9-16, March.
    10. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    11. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2023. "Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 213-225.
    12. Adler, Emanuel & Drieschova, Alena, 2021. "The Epistemological Challenge of Truth Subversion to the Liberal International Order," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 359-386, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rauh, Christian, 2022. "Clear messages to the European public? The language of European Commission press releases 1985–2020," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest Ar, pages 1-19.
    2. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    3. Jeffrey King & Andrew Lugg, 2023. "Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(2), pages 247-259, May.
    4. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2023. "Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 213-225.
    5. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2023. "Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 213-225.
    6. Alexander Kentikelenis & Erik Voeten, 2021. "Legitimacy challenges to the liberal world order: Evidence from United Nations speeches, 1970–2018," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 721-754, October.
    7. Senem Aydın‐Düzgit & Gergana Noutcheva, 2022. "External Contestations of Europe: Russia and Turkey as Normative Challengers?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(6), pages 1815-1831, November.
    8. Carnegie, Allison & Clark, Richard & Zucker, Noah, 2024. "Global Governance under Populism: The Challenge of Information Suppression," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt2572w5s7, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    9. Faradj Koliev & Karin Bäckstrand, 2025. "Citizen preferences for climate policy implementation: the role of multistakeholder partnerships," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 41-59, March.
    10. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    11. Ecker-Ehrhardt, Matthias, 2024. "Building bridges or digging the trench? International organizations, social media, and polarized fragmentation," Global Cooperation Research Papers 34, University of Duisburg-Essen, Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21).
    12. Julia Gray, 2024. "The life cycle of international cooperation: Introduction to the special issue," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 641-664, October.
    13. Maria J. Debre, 2022. "Clubs of autocrats: Regional organizations and authoritarian survival," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 485-511, July.
    14. Parizek, Michal & Stephen, Matthew D., 2021. "The Increasing Representativeness of International Organizations’ Secretariats: Evidence from the United Nations System, 1997–2015," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 65(1), pages 197-209.
    15. Henning Schmidtke & Tobias Lenz, 2024. "Expanding or defending legitimacy? Why international organizations intensify self-legitimation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 753-784, October.
    16. Felicity Vabulas, 2020. "Christian Kreuder-Sonnen. 2019. Emergency Powers of International Organizations: Between Normalization and Containment. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 969-973, October.
    17. Cynthia Couette, 2024. "Epistemic competition in global governance: The case of pharmaceutical patents," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(3), pages 516-527, June.
    18. Liesbet Hooghe & Tobias Lenz & Gary Marks, 2019. "Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 731-743, December.
    19. Martin Binder & Monika Heupel, 2020. "Rising Powers, UN Security Council Reform, and the Failure of Rhetorical Coercion," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(S3), pages 93-103, October.
    20. Andrea Fracasso & Nicola Grassano & Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti, 2015. "The Gravity of Foreign News Coverage in the EU: Does the Euro Matter?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 274-291, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:revint:v:20:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11558-023-09517-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.