The Influence of Groupthink on Culture and Conflict in Twitter

Overview

This chapter presents the outcomes of conducting a keyword search of groupthink, social networking sites (SNS), culture, conflict and related terms in selected databases in communication, focusing on Twitter. The rationale for focusing on Twitter is based on the growing prevalence and use of Twitter as a social diary and as a popular site for intercultural connection and conflict interaction. Twitter is a medium for intercultural connections and expressions and conflict interactions that may be integrative and disruptive. In the absence of a comprehensive review of social media since the review of scholarship on SNS (Boyd & Ellison, 2008) and later research on social networking sites spanning 2004-2015 (Meng, Martinez, Holmstrom, Chung, & Cox, 2017), there is need for an overarching theoretical framework and a method for studying SNS as an evolving aspect of new media reconceptualization in human communication. Current concepts are presented in this first section. This presentation begins with defining groupthink, its precursors or predisposing conditions, and proceeds by defining culture, intercultural connections, conflict, conflict interactions, social networking sites and Twitter.