Index Comunicación (Apr 2017)
Digital Democracy in Mexico: Participation of Young Users during the Federal Legislative Elections of 2015
Abstract
Several studies agree that the use of Web 2.0 applications tends to facilitate the political participation of young people. In the case of Mexico, a country strongly identified by aspects such as the technological gap and the concentration of the media system, in the last years has experienced the emergence of diverse mobilizations that, starting from the digital participation, end up by fracturing the discourse organized from the traditional media and institutions. In this article we explore the role of the consumption of political information in social networks and their influence on political participation. For this, the trends in the consumption of information on politics in social networks by Mexican university students in the mexican states of Nuevo León, Sonora, Durango and Coahuila in the year 2015 were examined. Among the main findings, we identified a greater use of social media over conventional media; in addition to this, a close relationship was observed between the political participation on and off the line of the young people interviewed.
