Objectives & Aims

The specific objectives of this study are organized around two interlinked analytical axes. The first axis distinguishes the primary contexts in which polarization unfolds by separating two spatial domains: online and offline. The second axis defines the study’s core focus, namely the diagnosis of polarization and the development of intervention strategies. Based on this analytical framework, the study is designed around four main research objectives:

• First, as a diagnostic assessment of the online domain, the study will quantitatively and qualitatively analyze patterns of polarization (ideological and affective) manifested on digital platforms.
• Second, as the design of interventions in the online domain, it will implement and evaluate algorithmic-structural interventions, develop affect-centered AI calibration mechanisms, and design and validate coexistence-oriented communication systems.
• Third, as a diagnostic assessment of the offline domain, it will examine social distance and physical disconnection in urban space, as well as communication practices within urban local communities for engaging difference and diversity.
• Fourth, as the design of interventions in the offline domain, it will design local communication infrastructures for managing difference and establish and validate community-based communication strategies that link online and offline settings.

Building on these four objectives, the study adds two extended objectives.

• Fifth, it will conduct a theoretical analysis of how online and offline polarization interact to form compounded structures of polarization, and, on that basis, derive context-sensitive intervention strategies that span both domains.
• Sixth, grounded in the preceding five objectives, it will compare South Korean society with selected international cases (e.g., London, Amsterdam, and Chicago) in order to assess how polarization and intervention strategies vary by cultural and institutional context, and to examine the generalizability and transferability of proposed interventions.

This study seeks to make an integrative scholarly contribution by analyzing the influence of AI-based algorithms and digital platforms at the intersection of media sociology, political communication, data science, media psychology, urban communication, platform studies, and cultural studies, thereby overcoming disciplinary fragmentation across both domestic and international academic fields. By simultaneously conducting experimental interventions (such as AI-based affect regulation algorithms and community media experiments), surveys, qualitative research, and comparative analyses of real-world cases across multiple cities, the study establishes a mixed-methods meta-framework that links theory and practice.

Through this approach, the research strengthens the foundation for future interdisciplinary international collaborative studies on this topic. In addition, the study contributes to the development of a sustainable research ecosystem by providing early-career researchers and graduate students in Korea with opportunities to gain international research experience, develop an understanding of advanced technologies, and engage in socially oriented academic practice aimed at addressing societal challenges.

In addition, this study proposes the following policy-oriented strategies to address social polarization resulting from technological innovation: