Sorry I misunderstood your point. Yeah that is a little different and an interesting theory.

I'm sure they are similar phenomena. 

What they're specifically talking about is how they get people to flip-flop without generating cognitive dissonance. I don't think I explained it very well, but it's more specific than just general confirmation bias.

Undisciplined

Do people really get radicalized by YouTube videos or forums or Reddit?

I am very skeptical about blaming online content and communities for 'radicalization'


Bell_curve

Isn’t this pretty much how people get radicalized online too? Pre-internet you might have 1 or 2 crazies in your town but now with the internet those crazies can interact with all the other crazies in the world and have their beliefs validated by a much larger group.

In the media’s case they provide the same validation for people’s belief systems since they hear other people talking about what they believe.

news

Media supplies people with an internal dialogue to deal with changing positions

Isn’t this pretty much how people get radicalized online too? Pre-internet you might have 1 or 2 crazies in your town but now with the internet those crazies can interact with all the other crazies in the world and have their beliefs validated by a much larger group.

In the media’s case they provide the same validation for people’s belief systems since they hear other people talking about what they believe.