Prejudice and othering in social media: a systematic literature review

Social media platforms hold an enormous capacity for transforming social interaction, user opinions and behaviours. Online users divide themselves into echo chambers, and the interaction is characterized by polarization. This digital divide is conceptualized by othering and prejudice. These nuanced concepts are interconnected and their propagation in social media has been crucial. Since there are no studies that have reviewed existing literature combining prejudice and othering in social media, this study attempts to fill the research gap and aims to conduct a systematic literature review by researching databases and academic sources to understand how the concepts of prejudice and othering are discussed in social media. This literature review outlines the broadly used methodologies, theories/focuses and how prejudice and othering are propagated in the discussion. Data were collected from the Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC), APA Psych, and Ingenta Connect journals, highlighting research gaps while providing a comprehensive roadmap for future research.