The experiences of 2012 and 2015

Transcription

1 PSA 24th World Congress of Political Science Politics in a World of Inequality Poznan 2012 Political Participation on Line in Mexico Silvia Gómez Tagle 1 The present text deals with the impact virtual and on-line political participation has on real politics in Mexico. I have attempted to provide some ideas on analyzing the relationship between the use of digital technology such as the Internet and social networks, and Internet and political culture of young Mexicans, as well as its projection in public spaces in which the competence of political power (parties, candidates and other actors) is played out. This analysis is carried out using the context of the presidential election of 2012 since this is considered to be a privileged moment in which the main political actors spoke up, creating a public opinion milieu of competence involving the whole population. In recent years in Mexico, as well as in other countries, it has been observed that resources offering communication by way of Internet, social networks and smart phones or tablets, have proved important in some specific local political circumstances and have even had national repercussions. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study, but rather an approach to the problem from various angles, mainly based on data from the Encuesta Nacional de Cultura Política de los Jóvenes 2012 (ENCPJ2012) 2 and also on information from interviews, the press and works published on specific movements. I am interested in dealing with some problems: Who are Internet users and how do they act? Do they have an impact on electoral and political processes? Can we expect modifications in political culture due to the increase in electronic media and above all in the use of social networks? How is public space and political culture changed as the participation of these new technologies of communication become more generalized? The experiences of 2012 and 2015 A few months before the presidential election of 2012 there arose a university student movement known as #YoSoy132 (I m 132) which had an important repercussion on the political climate of the campaign and possibly influenced the results of the election. This movement arose spontaneously, without anyone imagining that a clash of the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto with a group of students at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) campus in Mexico City, could begin a movement. When everything looked like the PRI would have a clear road to the presidency, the critical discourse of the students with respect to the figure of the candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, who had been projected by the 1 El Colegio de México 2 National Survey of Political Culture of Young People, (ENCPJ2012), made by El Colegio de México in the period of political presidential campaigns. Soon a book entitled The Political Culture of Young People 2012, coordinated by Silvia Gómez Tagle, with chapters in which various authors analyze specific details of the survey will be published by El Colegio de México.

2 media as a young candidate of a renovated party which would recover the course of the country which had been poorly governed by the PAN for two twelve years (two presidential periods), interrupted this. The movement began in a lecture given by EPN at the UIA and expanded like wildfire due to the imprudent intervention of his bodyguards who tried to exclude the students in order to hide their critical opinions, as well as due to the authoritarian declarations of the candidate himself. Later on the protest grew due to the distorted versions provided by PRI legislators and broadcast by electronic media who came out in support of EPN. It was called I m 132 because faced with the slander broadcast by the media claiming that those who protested at the university were not students, 131 students reacted, showing their student ids and all those who followed them were called 132. The movement spread through social networks, thanks to smart phones which served as receivers and senders of images of the lecture, the candidate s statements, and his shameful flight from the meeting, etc. All these messages and the debates which ensued between legislators and public servants of the PRI and students permitted the young people to build an anti-pri discourse which had a strong impact on the debate. 3 This experience opened the debate on two processes which had an impact on public space within the context of the presidential election of 2012: a. A movement of young people with leftist renegade but non-party vision and the fact that these young people played a role in national politics when many analysts had said they had an individualistic political culture and were indifferent to politics. b. The new role played by the media based on new technologies and social networks which seems to offer a set of tools allowing civic society to enjoy the possibility of having an active role in politics, not only as a target audience, but as actors of messages and meaning which impact public opinion. The other experiences which got me thinking about the matter of virtual politics took place in 2015 in two different fields: independent candidates who became visible thanks to the triumph of legislators (both local and federal), local authorities at the municipal level and a governor. In 2015 independent candidates won the election for governor in the state of Nuevo Leon, one of the most important entities in the country from the economic point of view, as well as winning the mayor s races in several municipalities. In all these cases the role played by social networks as instruments of campaign publicity stood out in the races of the independent candidate. The one that stands out the most is the race of Pedro Kumamoto, a local deputy in a Guadalajara district of the state of Jalisco. Kumamoto was a young university student who built his campaign with few resources and very important support from social networks 4 3 Alberto Olvera 2015, María Eugenia Valdés 2014, Alberto Aziz Pedro Kumamoto 2015, YouTube.

3 However, the experience of the successful independent candidates in 2015, contrasts with the data contributed by the UNAM Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (IIJ-UNAM) in a study of the activities of the candidates for the Mayors of the 16 Delegaciones (municipalities) of Mexico City on social networks. In the analysis I made of the statistics of participation in social networks, in contrast with the electoral results. Hypothesis a. The new communication technologies (NCT to abbreviate) involve a transformation in the dynamics of mass communication, given the fact that they individualize the sender and receiver of the message, and allow for establishing two way communications, in which the receiver is not passive. Internet and social network users may choose which messages they wish to open and/or receive; they may answer the message, reproduce it and give it a grade. The message received is transformed, not only by the mind of the citizen, but in the network, the click transforms the message, it makes it a message which is accepted or rejected, many times resent, edited, modified or simply ignored. For example, when talking about a political campaign, the receiving citizen may choose to not pay attention to the message (not clicking on it), not seeing the content; and if he does click on it, he may approve of it or reject it after having seen or read it, answer the sender and also reproduce the message in his own virtual space, in other words on his own networks, thus magnifying his approval or rejection. However, the great power of the user is constantly threatened by the ambition for control by private companies as well as political powers. These entities try to assure their control of the net by creating monopolies of communication and digital platforms which channel access to their commercial or political interests and block the free access of users as well as the free interconnection of networks. Virtual networks do not cancel out other previous media such as television, radio or the press, nor do they totally substitute ordinary political participation, on the streets or face to face meetings with the candidates. In fact, all media complement each other, together forming a public space with novel dynamics which allows individuals to have an impact on other Internet users and on the public agenda. This has obligated the conventional media to change their dynamics to include more and more interactive communication via NCT. Rather than disappearing, the written press coordinates with television, radio and digital media. Television is digitalized and becomes interactive. TV channels can be seen on computers when the receiver decides to connect. Prime time loses importance because the audience chooses their times and contents from a menu which offers much broader, varied and global choices than during the previous century. 5 5 Manuel Castells, 2009.

4 We must keep in mind that a basic tool for the massive use of NCT is the smart cell phone with which many users are permanently connected to the Internet or social networks. The smart phone and not only a computer, seems to be the main gadget for the massification of digital communication. This is where political events which may have a great impact when broadcasted over the networks make possible the combining of the everyday world and the digital world which gives citizens the enormous power of being present at the critical moments in which abuse of authority, repression, aggression of a criminal, destruction of natural resources such as logging or automobiles belonging to public servants parked on the sidewalks, as occurs frequently in Mexico City, take place. b. It is a fact that the most frequent users of NCT and above all social networks are young people between 15 and 29 years old. It is to be expected that young people, on using this new virtual political space are exercising a different form of citizenship through the creation of new meanings and a series of political practices belonging to their own generation. This is not necessarily the kind of political militancy which the political parties or the traditional democratic institutions such as voting are expecting. However this new citizenship practiced by Internet users seems to be closer and have greater synergy to social movements than that of the political parties and institutional processes of voting which make for legitimately obtaining political power in the democracy of elections. As a consequence formal institutions of this democracy may be weakened since notifications on social networks may mobilize groups of people to action in real life, but often do not become institutions and may result in a return to authoritarian solutions. 6 Elections for Mayor of the Delegaciones in Mexico City 2015 The IIJ-UNAM carried out a project analyzing the behavior of candidates for mayor of Delegaciones 7 in Mexico City on social networks in which they counted all of the activities carried out on the social networks, Face Book, Twitter and You Tube. At the end of the campaign, with the data from this project we calculated the correlation between the percentage of messages sent and received for each candidate and the percentage of votes obtained by each candidate in each delegation. 8 Different results were obtained depending on the level of analysis of the information: whether it was in general for Mexico City and all candidates, or by delegation and the candidates who were competing in each delegation. 6 Reference to Arab countries, Castells 7 Delegación is the name given to the administrative areas in which Mexico City is divided. This concept will change to something more similar to a municipality with de 2016 Political Reform of the Distrito Federal now Mexico City CDMX. 8 Note on the Project and link to the page.

5 In the general analysis (the results of the 16 delegations and all candidates) the coefficient of correlation r2 is relatively good in the case of Twitter Followers (above 0.27) but not in any of the other options (Table 1). Table 1 In the elections for heads of delegations in Mexico City* Relationship between the activity of the candidate on social networks and the results obtained in the elections in the 16 delegations Coefficients R2 by social networks Twitter Facebook Youtube Followers Tweets Suscribers Reproductions Source: Redes sociales en campañas políticas, documento de trabajo, IIJ-UNAM. However, if an analysis is carried out for each delegation separately, the results are very different because there are very great differences among delegations (Table 2). The delegations in red are where the r2 coefficient was above 0.6 in at least one of the networks. As can be seen in Table 2, there seems to be no correspondence between the kind of activity on social networks and the winning political party or between the socioeconomic factors of the delegation and the results. For example, in the Benito Juárez Delegation where the PAN won, the socio-economic level is high and uniform. This is the delegation which is best connected to NCT in the city but does not show a high coefficient while in Iztapalapa with high levels of marginalization the PRD won and here the r2 coefficient was higher (0.7) and Azcapotzalco where Morena won shows a high r2 coefficient with low socio-economic level (Table 2). The conclusion I draw from this data is that the relationships are uncertain because there are other more important variables which we are not taking into account. I think that the problem is that we are not correctly measuring what the use of NCT implies, which presumes the simultaneous access of users to various communication media, including the written press and the responses which they post and reproduce on the network. In reality these r2 coefficients denote a relationship which should be contextualized using other socio-political variables.

6 Table 2 Elections for Mayors of Delegaciones in Mexico City, 2015 Relationship between activities of the candidates on social networks and the results obtained in the elections in the 16 delegations Coeficiente R2 Twitter Facebook Youtube Winning Party Delegación Seguidores Tweets Suscriptores Reproducciones PRD ÁLVARO OBREGON MORENA AZCAPOTZALCO PAN BENITO JUÁREZ PRD COYOACÁN PRI CUAJIMALPA MORENA CUAUHTÉMOC PRD GUSTAVO A. MADERO PRD IZCATALCO PRD IZTAPALAPA PRI MAGDALENA CONTRERAS PAN MIGUEL HIDALGO PRI MILPA ALTA MORENA TLÁHUAC MORENA TLALPAN PRD VENUSTIANO CARRANZA MORENA XOCHIMILCO PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PAN Partido Acción Nacional, PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Morena Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional. Source: Redes sociales en campañas políticas, documento de trabajo, IIJ-UNAM. Analysis of young people using the Internet in 2012 The results of the 2015 elections led me back to the survey ENCPJ2012, in order to study the activities of young citizens with the new communications technologies (NCT) from another point of view, since it provides data on the use of different digital platforms that allows for analyze the relation with some political attitudes, which in general are not seen in other surveys. The ENCPJ2012 was carried out in 76 cities at the time of the presidential elections, in order to obtain information on the most important and best connected urban centers in the country. These cities represent approximately 50% of the citizens who have the right to vote. The survey was designed for young people between 18 and 29 years old, with a contingent sample of adults, which is not representative of the entire adult population but allows for seeing the differences between the two age groups. Of the 2085 young people and 429 adults interviewed who know how to use the computer and surf the web, without weighting the survey, how may have , Face Book and Twitter, etc.

7 Profile of the Users of the New Communication Technologies (NCT) There are some characteristics of young people that use of new communication technologies (NCT) which are worth pointing out. In the first place I will refer to age, comparing young people and adults and the ways in which they use these media. Table 3 Users of new communication technologies by age Young People Adults Taking into account internet use SI NO* Total SI NO* Total Do you have an account? 88.20% 11.80% % 84.90% 14.90% 99.80% Do you belong to the social network Face Book? 80.90% 18.90% 99.80% 54.30% 45.20% 99.50% Do you belong to the social network Twitter? 30.70% 68.90% 99.60% 30.70% 68.90% 99.60% Do you use any other social network? 6.70% 83.70% 90.40% 2.80% 97.00% 99.80% *Did not answer, does not know, does not Source: Data from the ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. It has been said that access to means of communication such as the Internet and social networks is restricted in Mexico. However, if we are talking about urban populations by age groups the results are very different. The ENCPJ2012 was given in the 76 most important cities in the country. In these urban areas the access to Internet in general is high, between 85% and 88%. (Table 3) But if we take into account the population of urban young people (between 18 and 29 years old) in contrast to the adult population (30 years of age and older) the most important difference is found in the use of social networks such as Twitter, Face Book and other similar networks. (Graph 1) Graph 1 Users of New Communication Technologies by age ADULTOS (30 y más años) No Si JÓVENES (18-29 años) Adults (30 years of age and older) Young people (18-29 years old) For what purpose are Internet and Social Networks used? Young people and adults were asked about the use they give Internet and social networks. Young people say that the most important thing is relationships with friends while adults gave more importance to obtaining information and professional relations. The difference

8 between the two groups is not large; most coincide that they use them for communicating. But almost no one said they use them for calling for political action or for carrying out protest actions, which shows that the option of political use of NCT was not something which was assimilated by the general public, despite the fact that at that time the #I m132 movement had a great impact on the media between April and June 2012, the months of intense electoral campaigning and also the time in which the survey was carried out. Table 4 What do you use the social networks or for? What do you use the social networks or for? Young people Adults Communicating 53.80% 54.10% Relationships of friendship 17.00% 9.60% For entertainment 9.50% 8.40% Exchanging information 8.30% 10.70% Professional relations 3.80% 8.40% Protesting together with others 0.20% 0.20% Organizing and participating in groups on the Interne 0.20% 0.20% Other 4.80% 5.60% No answer 2.40% 2.80% Total % % Source: Data from the ENCPJ2012 processed by the author Graph 2 What do you use the social networks and for? No answer Other Organizing and participating in Protesting together with others Professional relations Exchanging information Adults Young people For entertainment Relationships of friendship Communicating ANALYSIS OF ONLY THE YOUNG PEOPLE S POLITICAL CULTURE AND NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (NCT) I take as a starting point Castells idea that communication in mass media is produced in an additive way; it does not mean someone who uses NCT abandons television, or the written

9 press, but rather they complement each other to enrich the communication network. Nearly the whole population of all ages watches television; some listen to the radio; fewer read newspapers and some use the Internet or similar media to keep informed and for communication. But using one media does not imply abandoning the others. That is why the concept of intensity of connectivity seems to me to be important and that is what I wish to propose as a methodological approach in this paper. The ENCPJ2012 is one of the few surveys which provides this data for identifying individual users of various media simultaneously. The first concept analyzed is the intensity of the use of Internet and other additional digital platforms of communication. It is based on the idea that the use of Internet is basic and then contemplates the possibility of using various other media in addition to . However, it is very possible that people can use various platforms such as Face Book and Twitter without using and therefore any combination of the four possible options was accepted: , Face Book, Twitter and other options which are not as popular but with similar characteristics such as Instagram, You Tube, etc. 9 A new variable was constructed in which the resources those interviewed used were added up in order to obtain an indicator of the intensity with which they surf the web. I will call this concept intensity of the use of NCT and it will be the key concept for all of the analysis presented below. Taking into account only the young people, using the designed weighting with an expansion factor which rectifies the distortion of the sample with respect to age and sex, we obtain the following results. 70% of young people of both sexes use some form of NCT. Most use at least two communication platforms; 20% use three platforms and only 3% have access to communication by way of four or more. In general women are less connected than men. Table 5 Intensity of use of new communication technology Young people using NCT* Men Women Total Does not use NCT 24.00% 34.60% 29.50% Only one NCT 9.50% 8.40% 8.90% Two NCT 40.20% 38.10% 39.10% Three NCT 22.60% 16.80% 19.60% Four NCT 3.80% 2.10% 2.90% Total % % % Total surveyed** *New communication technology (NCT) is the sum of various media: , Face Book, Twitter, others **Designed weighting factor with adjustments for age and sex September 24, For young people the designed weighting factor, adjusting for age and sex September 24, 2012 was used. This results in expanding the sample to cases, compensating for the disproportion of women in some age groups. The result is men and women, and age distribution is corrected.

10 Graph 3 Intensity of use of Internet Three NCT Two NCT Only one NCT Does not use NCT Total Women Men Young people using NCT* 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% Table 6 Socio-economic level of Internet users with various degrees of intensity in use of NCT Socio-economic level* Young People in NCT A/B C+ C-/C D+ D/E Total Does not use NCT 9.60% 23.00% 36.10% 50.10% 29.50% Only uses NCT 5.80% 9.80% 8.80% 10.30% 8.90% Two NCT 45.60% 42.00% 37.50% 30.90% 39.10% Three NCT 33.60% 21.50% 15.60% 8.20% 19.60% Four NCT 5.40% 3.60% 1.90% 0.50% 2.90% Total % % % % % *The socio-economic level was classified with indicators of the AMAI (Mexican Association of Agencies of Market Research and Public Opinion) using questionnaires, taking into account the observation of housing and some indicators such as household appliances, number of light bulbs, etc. Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Young Internet users of NCT usually make use of two media, Internet and something more. In Graph 3 it may be seen that there is a constant relationship between the socioeconomic level of those interviewed and the intensity of use: the higher the socioeconomic level, we may expect to see more intense users or in other words those who use more new technology resources simultaneously.

11 Only at the lowest levels do non-users outnumber users in all categories. At the other extreme, we find a small group of intense users of four media, who are concentrated at the highest socio-economic level. Thus we can affirm that as the socioeconomic level increases, the number of higher intensity users of NCT increases. Graph 4 Socio-economic level of Internet users with various degrees of intensity Total D/E D+ C-/C Four NCT Three NCT Two NCT Only uses NCT Does not use NCT A/B C+ 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% As we will see later on, this is of great importance in considering the relationship between the levels of intensity of NCT users and various characteristics of the political culture of young people. Degree of Intensity of Internet Users in Public Space Political participation in relation to the degree of intensity of the NTC users Table 7 Have you ever participated or do you belong to any organization, association, team or group of this kind? TOTAL % NO SI TOTAL Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Young people s participation in sports, cultural or social associations or organizations is low. Only 32% of those interviewed answered affirmatively, but it is possible that some young people participate simultaneously in various organizations. Table 8 users Participation in organizations with respect to the degree of intensity of the NTC

12 Total STUDENT 2.10% 6.50% 11.00% 16.80% 28.00% 9.60% SPORTS, CULTURAL, ARTISTIC 10.60% 19.80% 20.20% 26.30% 45.30% 19.30% RELIGIOUS 7.20% 5.70% 8.60% 11.30% 20.60% 8.80% PROFESSIONAL 1.00% 4.70% 2.80% 7.00% 12.10% 3.50% NEGHBORHOOD OR CONDOMINIUM 2.20% 3.20% 3.10% 4.20% 14.70% 3.40% Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author Graph 5 Participation in organizations with respect to the degree of intensity of the NTC users Total NEGHBORHOOD OR CONDOMINIUM PROFESSIONAL RELIGIOUS SPORTS, CULTURAL, ARTISTIC STUDENT % 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% Young people do not participate very often in organizations, but when they do, they prefer sports, cultural or artistic organizations; and in second place young people participate in student organizations which is logical since these people are between 18 and 29 years old. Religious organizations are in third place but less important, followed by professional, neighborhood and condominium associations (Graph 5). However, for some kinds of organizations we may observe tendencies which show a relationship between belonging to an organization and the level of intensity of NCT participation, so much so that we may affirm that the greater the intensity (From 1 to 4 degrees of intensity), the more probable it is that the young person belongs to a sports, cultural and student organization. The group of young people with the fourth degree of intensity stands out as having more than twice the participation of other groups. This data indicates the hypothesis that belonging to religious, professional, neighborhood or condominium organizations does not have a direct tie with the use of NCT, but rather that they are mediated by other contextual variables such as the place the young people live and work, or maybe the religion they profess, variables associated more with the family, occupation or culture of the region. For young people who participate in sports, cultural, religious or student organizations there is a positive synergy with on-line participation and with the intensity of users of social networks.

13 Kind of participation in social and/or political actions convoked on-line In this topic we take a look at the answers to two different questions. One has to do with calls people have received on-line or through social networks (which have reached young people) and the other kind related to actions in which those interviewed have participated. The answers to the two questions show different tendencies. Table 9 With respect to the degree of intensity of the NTC users To what kinds of actions have you been called over the social networks? In favor of Human Rights 1.50% 7.10% 6.10% 11.50% 19.90% For the conservation of the environment or animals 1.80% 1.90% 5.40% 9.40% 18.60% Events of entertainment 4.80% 14.10% 24.10% 23.60% 15.20% Demonstrations for non-party student demands 0.00% 1.60% 2.50% 3.20% 6.70% Demonstrations against the government 0.00% 1.30% 2.40% 1.60% 3.20% Events for a political candidate 0.40% 2.80% 4.40% 5.60% 6.60% Movements with student demands 0.00% 0.80% 1.70% 1.70% 2.50% Others 0.00% 1.70% 1.30% 1.70% 1.20% None 91.40% 68.80% 52.10% 41.60% 26.10% Total % % % % % Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author Graph 6 With respect to the degree of intensity of the NTC users To what kinds of actions have you been called over the social networks? None Others Movements with student demands Events for a political candidate Demonstrations against the Demonstrations for non-party Events of entertainment For the conservation of the In favor of Human Rights 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% % Slightly over half of the young people had not been called to any activity via the Internet or social networks. Of those who had received a call, the other 50%, events of entertainment were the most frequent, followed by actions for the conservation of the environment or Human Rights. In these cases there is a positive relationship: the more participation there is, the higher the intensity of NCT activities.

14 The most common are calls for action of protest or for political campaigns, which confirms the general perception that young people are not interested in politics as such. However, here there is also a difference between non-party public matters and politics which are convoked over the Internet and social networks, even when they are not traditionally what would be considered to be politics. Another question was, in what activities have you participated? In this case the results are different. In Table 10, column total it can be seen that only 9% of the young people say they have participated. Of this small group, the most common kind of participation is spreading information or making fun of authorities, either directly or by reproducing posts. In all of the other options the participation is 5% or less to the affirmative. This coincides with the idea that NCT activities main goals are entertainment, communication, but not political participation or intervention in public spaces. However, upon analyzing each group of Internet users separately, classified by levels of the aforementioned participation (on a scale of zero to four), the great differences among them disappear. This corroborates the idea that the greater the use of NCT, the more critical and participative citizens are in politics. Table 10 With respect to the degree of intensity of the NTC users Have you participated in any acts of protest? Total Spreading information or making fun of the authorities, either directly or reproducing posts, etc. 1.20% 3.30% 11.10% 16.50% 38.20% 9.30% In demonstrations or sit-ins 2.30% 2.70% 5.20% 8.80% 24.40% 5.40% Sending letters to newspapers 1.50% 1.30% 2.00% 4.40% 13.30% 2.60% Graffitying walls 1.50% 0.40% 2.10% 3.20% 12.00% 2.30% Blocking traffic in the street or access to public buildings, schools or private businesses 1.00% 1.90% 3.40% 4.40% 16.80% 3.10% Asking for support for parties or social organizations 2.50% 1.70% 4.40% 7.60% 18.40% 4.60% Work stoppage or strike 3.20% 5.40% 4.70% 6.90% 20.90% 5.20% Asking for support for parties or social organizations 2.50% 1.70% 4.40% 7.60% 18.40% 4.60% Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Graph 6 With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC. Have you participated in any acts of protest?

15 Asking for support for parties or social organizations Work stoppage or strike Asking for support for parties or social organizations Blocking traffic in the street or access to public buildings, schools or private businesses Graffitying walls Sending letters to newspapers In demonstrations or sit-ins Spreading information or making fun of the authorities, either directly or reproducing posts, etc. 0.00% 5.00%10.00%15.00%20.00%25.00%30.00%35.00%40.00%45.00% In general, very few young people participated in these kinds of actions (table 9, far right column, Total). However, the most important thing we can observe in Graph 6 is how the smallest group of Internet users who are very active (group 4) stand out as having participated in all kinds of actions, from supporting parties and social movements, strikes and spreading critical or negative information about authorities to real life actions such as graffiting, participating in demonstrations or blocking streets. There is also a very large difference between the NCT users at levels two or three and those who only use NCT less or do not use Internet or social networks at all. In general, the more intense users are more participative. The opinion of the Internet Users of the #YoSoy132 movement Table 11 Opinions of the #YoSoy132 movement Students from various universities have carried out demonstrations. Do you think either of these phrases is true? With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Total They want to elect in order to demand. (demand action by the government no matter who wins) 41.50% 58.90% 47.70% 45.10% 60.70% 46.80% They just want to suspend classes and cause disorder % 31.00% 30.00% 27.00% 27.20% 28.10%

16 INTERNAUTAS NTC suma de medios usados Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Two emblematic phrases that describe the movement were taken. One is positive describing a group of students who organized to demand better government and the other, also spread by the media with ruling party bias during this period when the PRI was trying to defend its candidate, Peña Nieto. The latter was meant to discredit the student movement by saying that it was just a group who only wanted to create pandemonium. (The two phrases which appear in Table 11). In general 47% of those interviewed thought that the phrase Elect in order to demand with a positive content was real while the second, want to suspend classes and cause disorder was negative and approved by 28% of those interviewed. This means that the official propaganda, widely broadcast in the media, above all on open TV, did not convince young people. However, there is no clear relationship between the young people who were not connected to the Internet and those with high levels of intensity of use of NCT. In both groups there is acceptance and rejection caused by the student movement. Graph 7 Opinions of Internet Users of the #YoSoy132 movement. With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Total 4 3 They just want to suspend classes and cause disorder They want to elect in order to demand. (demand action by the government no matter who wins) 0.00% 20.00%40.00%60.00%80.00% The opinions of Internet Users on the presidential campaigns and candidates in 2012 The ENCP2012 was intentionally carried out at the most intense moment of the presidential campaign of 2012, two weeks prior to the election, in order to learn the opinions at the moment which all Mexicans were living. In this section we explore the

17 results of the responses to two questions, one having to do with the use of NCT for obtaining information on the candidates and their campaigns and the other to learn their preferences. What is interesting about both of them is that the answers show the independence of one from the other. Table 12 During the present electoral campaign have you followed the information on any candidate, political party or social movement? (via social networks or the Internet) With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Total Yes 8.00% 16.70% 23.50% 38.80% 44.00% 25.70% No 92.00% 83.30% 76.50% 61.20% 56.00% 74.30% Total % % % % % % Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Of all of the young people interviewed, only 26% used some media such as the Internet or social networks to follow the electoral campaigns and 74% did not. However, if the information is disaggregated by groups of NCT users, there are also great differences. It is apparent that of those who do not use NCT (Category 0) 92% said they did not follow the campaigns. It is interesting that there is a lineal relationship between the intensity of NCT use and greater following of the campaign. This must be contrasted with the idea that Internet users use this media for recreational or communication ends in general, but at the time of presidential campaigns, there is a very clear relationship between Internet users and politics. Of the level 4 users, 44% followed the political campaign. Graph 8 During the present electoral campaign have you followed the information on any candidate, political party or social movement? (via social networks or the Internet) With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC No Yes % 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% %

18 The next question is, which of the candidate did those interviewed follow? In general (far right column of Table 13) 39% of the young people followed the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, while Josefina Vázquez Mota of the PAN and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Coalition of leftist PRD and other parties), have 25% following. Very few young people followed Gabriel Quadri de la Torre of the PANAL, but above all his followers were those with the highest levels of intensity as NCTI users. Otherwise, there does not seem to be a relationship between the use of NCT to a greater or lesser extent and the candidate followed in networks. It seems that social networks and the Internet offered more information on EPN than on the other candidates but without making for more support for the PRI candidate. Is it possible that this was due to the #I m132 campaign which denounced EPN s and the PRI s errors, without necessarily giving their support to another candidate? Table 13 Which candidate did they follow in internet o social networks? With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Who did you follow? Total Josefina Vázquez Mota 25.90% 27.50% 25.20% 26.30% 23.50% 25.70% Enrique Peña Nieto 37.20% 24.00% 45.40% 34.10% 38.60% 38.90% Andrés Manuel López Obrador 22.80% 36.60% 19.80% 28.60% 28.60% 25.00% Gabriel Quadri de La Torre 0.00% 0.00% 1.30% 6.90% 9.30% 3.80% Other candidates 0.00% 7.60% 1.60% 1.40% 0.00% 1.80% No, I don't remember, no answer 14.20% 4.40% 6.70% 2.80% 0.00% 4.80% Total % % % % % % Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author. Graph 9 Of those interviewed who followed a candidate, which candidate did they obtain information on? With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC

19 No, I don't remember, no answer Other candidates Gabriel Quadri de La Torre Andrés Manuel López Obrador Enrique Peña Nieto Series5 Series4 Series3 Series2 Series1 Josefina Vázquez Mota 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% Preference for candidates and voting intention A very different situation can be seen when talking about preferences for candidates for the presidency in In this matter the opinions of young urban people were quite different from what the majority of national surveys, which did not take into account the factor of urbanization, showed at the time. The sample preferences have lower readings for EPN with 29% and AMLO with 23% while JVM remained at 19%. However the margin of uncertainty is very high since 16% expressed indifference for the candidates and 8% of those interviewed said they had no interest or intention of voting. Finally only 4% stated their preference for EQT of the New Alliance Party. The interesting differences come to light when analyzing the opinions of each group interviewed when separated according to the intensity of users. There is a direct relationship between the candidates preferred by those who belonged to each group according to their access to digital communication technology. Table 14 Of the candidates for president, who would you vote for as your first option? With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Total JVM 18.80% 16.80% 19.20% 19.30% 23.60% 19.00% EPN 32.10% 38.80% 29.10% 22.80% 12.10% 29.10% AMLO 19.80% 21.30% 21.10% 27.40% 40.70% 22.50% GQT 3.00% 6.40% 5.40% 9.10% 9.50% 5.60% Do not know 17.30% 12.50% 17.90% 13.90% 9.90% 16.20% Do not vote 9.00% 4.30% 7.20% 7.50% 4.20% 7.50% Total % % % % % % Source: Data from ENCPJ2012 processed by the author.

20 Graph 10 Of the candidates for president, who would you vote for as your first option? With respect to the degree of intensity of the use of NTC Total Do not vote Do not know GQT AMLO EPN JVM % 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% Those who are not Internet users and those with a low intensity of use level (1) present more opinions favorable to EPN than those who are better informed and communicated (levels 2, 3 and 4). The percentages of do not know and do not vote (have no interest or will not vote) answers are higher at the levels of less NCT use, while they decrease as the intensity of activity of users increases. On the other hand, with the three remaining candidates: JVM, AMLO and EQT the opposite occurs. The higher the intensity of NCT use, the higher positive opinions are. The difference of intention of vote is especially noteworthy in the case of AMLO who reaches 40% at level 4 of user intensity (Graph 10). Conclusions Studying the impact that new communication technology has on politics and more generally on public space is indispensible in the XXI century. The use of NCT does not take the place of other means of mass communication, written or electronic, but rather complements and transforms the model of mass communication. These media offer citizens novel resources through which they can modify the relationships of power. Now normal citizens may make their relationships and conflicts visible to the authority and other groups in society over the social networks. If we believe that for the development of democracy public space is fundamental, we must ask how this mass form of access to new communication technology is transforming public spaces. And also what the relationship between the virtual social world and the real world of society is. This is the way in which Internet users can develop political practices which allow them to influence the public agenda, sometimes significantly, without going through conventional political institutions such as political parties. It can be said that these are means of communication which by their very material and technological nature transform social relationships, offering new opportunities for democratization, in the same way that in other contexts anthropologists discovered how the passage from the Paleolithic Era to

21 the Neolithic brought about a change in the patterns of migration, property and power in the most ancient cultures. It is necessary to point out the importance of young urban people in this context for various reasons. In the first place young people are concentrating more and more in cities and urban areas, bringing with them all of the cultural changes which over time have had a negative effect on the permanence of the electoral domination of the PRI in the entire national territory. So much so that in 2012 it was proven that the results of voting in the presidential election were different, taking into account the urban territory (the 76 cities where the survey was taken) and the rest of the country. In the large cities where the ENCPJ2010 was taken, voting did not favor the PRI candidate, while in other territories he won by a large margin. Besides the urban environment, the connectivity offered to young people in cities has had important repercussions on political culture. In second place it must be taken into account that youth is a transitional step on the way to adulthood, so that when these young people reach maturity they will bring with them a different cultural heritage which will contribute to all of the socio-economic activities of the country since it is very improbable that they will lose the abilities in the use of NCT that they have acquired as young people. And finally, the impact of Internet users on public space is not limited to citizens voting, since it resonates in other mass media of communication, as happened with the #I m132 movement. Furthermore, there are experiences such as the independent candidates in 2015, in which the call to political action through NCT has had an impact on political-electoral circumstances, becoming an instrument in campaign strategy used by the candidate and his political team. Reflecting on the meaning Internet users have on political communication allows us to presume that the use of NCT is here to stay to offer opportunities for making citizens responses visible and for establishing horizontal relationships between citizens and politicians. What effect does the use of social networks and in general NCT bring about on politics and public space? This is a matter we are only beginning to systematically analyze along with its methodological challenges. In the present paper I have found a promising strategy of analysis by taking into account the intensity with which the users of the new communication technology participate in the world of virtual society, and their relationship with the real world of politics. Bibliography Aziz Nassif, Alberto, (2013), Paradojas electorales de 2012, en Desacatos, núm. 42, mayoagosto, pp Castells, Manuel, (2009), Comunicación y poder. Madrid: Alianza Editorial Castells, Manuel, (2012), Redes de indignación y esperanza. Los movimientos sociales en la era de Internet. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

22 Gómez Tagle, Silvia, Héctor Tejera Gaona y Jesús Aguilar López, (2012), Informe de la Encuesta La cultura política de los jóvenes en México para el Instituto Federal Electoral. Ciudad de México, México: mimeo. Naciones Unidas (2005), World Youth report, 2005: Young People Today, and in 2015, Nueva York, Naciones Unidas, Departamento de Asuntos Económicos y Sociales (DAES). Olvera, Alberto J, (2015), Elecciones presidenciales en México 2012: la restauración precaria, en Silvia Gómez Tagle (Coord.), Alternativas para la democracia en America Latina. México: Colmex/INE. Valdés Vega, María Eugenia y Josefina Maldonado Montes, (2014), El reclamo democrático del movimiento #YoSoy132, en Héctor Tejera Gaona, Pablo Castro Domingo y Emanuel Rodríguez Domínguez (Coords.), Continuidades, rupturas y regresiones. Contradicciones y paradojas de la democracia mexicana. México: UAM-I/Juan Pablos Editor. Sitios Web Encuesta Nacional de Cultura Política de los Jóvenes 2012/ ENCPJ2012 COLMEX CONACYT -INE- Informe de la encuesta, cultura%20politica%20de%20los%20jovenes%20en%20mexico.pdf. II-J/UNAM/INE, (2015), Observatorio electoral 2.0, en < Kumamoto Pedro, El Colegio de México Student Seminar < Candidaturas independientes, en