Disinformation as a driver of political polarization: A strategic framework for rebuilding civic trust in the U.S
Authors/Creators
- 1. Department of Communication Studies and Storytelling, East Tennessee State University, USA.
- 2. Department of Accounting, University of Ghana.
- 3. Department of Development Policy, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana.
- 4. Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana.
Description
This study investigates the strategic role of disinformation in exacerbating political polarization and eroding civic trust in the United States. In the context of increasing ideological fragmentation and declining institutional legitimacy, the paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding how disinformation, both foreign and domestic, functions as a systematic tool of democratic destabilization. The study synthesizes existing theoretical and empirical literature from political science, media studies and computational social science. This paper draws on secondary data, content analyses and findings from peer-reviewed studies to explore five core dimensions: the theoretical foundations of political polarization in the U.S., the structural design of disinformation ecosystems, cognitive mechanisms underlying belief formation, digital media architectures and algorithmic amplification and institutional responses aimed at democratic resilience. The findings reveal that algorithmically driven digital platforms disproportionately amplify partisan and emotionally charged content; however, cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and motivated reasoning make individuals more susceptible to politically aligned disinformation. The study also highlights how foreign actors exploit domestic vulnerabilities through computational propaganda and how domestic political actors weaponize disinformation to manipulate public opinion and suppress dissent. Institutional responses such as fact-checking and media literacy programs, though valuable, remain insufficient in the absence of systemic platform reform and coordinated governance mechanisms. The paper, therefore, concludes that disinformation operates not merely as a crisis of information accuracy but as an epistemic threat to democratic deliberation. Addressing this challenge requires an integrated strategy that combines policy, technology, education, and civic renewal.