The chapter aims at understanding a recent phenomenon in Mexican politics: the use of internet and social media as a new and powerful resource for mobilization and social participation in the policy process. Based on a review of two relatively recent movements in Mexico (#YoSoy132 and The Wirikuta Defense Front), the chapter argues that although the internet is still restricted to the middle and upper classes, the use of social media and its impact transcends class boundaries, draws public attention, creates a valuable social capital for mobilization, and influences the decision-making process. The chapter does not intend to provide evidence to the theoretical discussion on why and how social media enhances political participation and mobilization; rather, it reflects on the features shared by these two movements in order to draw some lines for further research. It finds that, if used appropriately, social media is actually an effective tool to facilitate mobilization and modify the public agenda.
TopThis section provides a brief review of the academic discussion on the impact of information technologies (ITs) for enhancing participation and mobilization. Although the chapter is not intended to contribute to the theoretical discussion on the use of information technologies, it will serve to frame the analysis of the Mexican case discussed in the following section.
There is a common acceptance that the Internet, in general, and social media, in particular, has incorporated a new feature in the way people acquire information that has triggered the monopoly that traditional media have had. There is also an agreement that the web socializes information at such a high speed unimaginable a few decades ago. From this perspective, the impact of the Internet and ITs is not minor: they have disempowered the State and traditional media since they cannot longer regulate public transaction and monopolize information (Turnsek and Jankowski, 2008). This makes political information more attainable to a larger share of the population (Stanley and Weare, 2004).
However, the extent to which the Internet and social media enhance political participation and mobilization is more debatable. There is still little evidence to support this argument. On the one hand, some argue that although ITs help in socializing events that happen around the world in few seconds, the use of ITs have an impact only on those who are already politically involved in a specific cause by providing more information and disseminating it. Also, they argue that, since Internet use is still limited to upper and middle classes, it has not yet replaced the traditional institutions for mobilization, such as parties or unions; neither it has replaced traditional media as the most important tool to gather and disseminate information. In addition, social media have been ripe for the proliferation of fake news –information presented as news that is low in facticity–, since it has lifted many obstacles to producing and distributing news that were present in the previous mass media age. Their impact is higher, in terms of political preferences, as they are aimed at specific constituencies (with the help of big data and algorithms) who trust most of the content in their social media feed (Owen, 2017).
On the other hand, those who argue that Internet has a positive impact on political participation and mobilization state that Internet and social media allow people to gather information, express their opinion and mobilize; in their view, having more information from direct sources convinces people to join a specific cause because they feel that their participation is bound to other activists who share their experiences and achievements. In other words, people’s access to social media networks has a positive effect on their sense of political efficacy and tendency to participate in politics (Gil de Zuniga, et al., 2010).