This project examines the relation between socioeconomic status, access to media, and political information acquisition and participation across four districts with varying levels of development and connectivity before, during, and after the 2011 presidential campaign in Argentina. By comparing communication and participation processes in different locations both at a time of high political activity (the 2011 campaign) and at periods of routine political activity, this study addresses three interrelated issues. First, it analyzes how structural factors (the level of social, political and economic development and the media system in each location) and individual conditions (citizens' motivation and ability) shape information acquisition and participation. Second, it explores whether the diffusion of the media technologies in different locations facilitates political engagement at varying rates. Third, it assesses whether media use in periods of high and low political activity fosters different degrees of engagement across geographic locations and socioeconomic status groups. This study is grounded on a mixed methods research design which combines in-depth interviews, a panel survey, and content analysis of media accounts. The three methods complement each other: interviews allow exploring respondents' political, social and informational settings, as well as their motives and interpretations, the panel survey complements the interviews through the statistical analysis of multiple and complex relationships, and content analysis provides an unobtrusive assessment of the media environments to which citizens have access in each location.
Understanding the interaction between socioeconomic development, access to media technologies, and political participation in various contexts provides insights for scholarship on civic engagement and on digital inequalities. This research project also has practical implications, as it sheds light on which policies might be used to promote effective use of technologies, equal access to information, and democratic participation.
This project is positioned at the intersection of studies on communication, politics and technology. Democracy is premised on equal access and participation, and information is considered a crucial resource for civic engagement. The emergence of new technologies, such as the internet, is often accompanied by worries that they may widen the social differences that already exist. This study compared communication and participation processes across four districts with different socioeconomic indicators and connectivity levels in Argentina before, during and after the 2011 presidential campaign. This study combined three waves of in-depth interviews with respondents in the four districts, two waves of interviews, and analysis of news content. The first wave of in-depth interviews, conducted in November and December 2010, show that, eleven months before the election, the overwhelming majority of citizens are not paying attention to political issue in general or the election in particular. Many, particularly the younger ones, did not know a presidential election would take place less than a year later. Two main reasons were given for lack of interest: some interviewees said politics were difficult to understand, while another group said politicians and journalists were not to be trusted. However, most participants also said they wanted to vote in the election, expressed shame about their lack of interest, and alleged they proposed to start paying attention to political news sometime the following year. The second wave of interviews, conducted in March-May 2011 confirmed these findings. Citizens in the four locations continued to show lack of interest in public affairs in general and the election in particular. The reasons expressed were again, distrust in politicians and the media, and the belief politics was difficult to understand. Although the general election was less than five or six months away, most respondents could not name any candidates, and had not thought of who they were going to vote. By the third wave of interviews, conducted on September-October 2011, most respondents could answer when the election would take place and who they were going to vote for. Although feelings of distrust continued, levels of information had increased. Many cited political ads on television as a source of information. However, voluntary information-seeking (reading the news, watching the news on television) had not increased among the majority of the respondents. Although almost all the respondents said they would vote, less than 20% were enthusiastic about their choice. Two waves of surveys were conducted, one in April 2011 (N =1600) and another one in October 2011 (N=1023). The first wave of the survey established that there were significant differences in level of access to media from one location to the other and, within locations, across socio-economic strata. For instance, while in the city of Buenos Aires more than 70% of the population had home access to the Internet, the percentage drops to 36% in Resistencia and 25% in Jose C Paz. Moreover, across all locations, people in the lower socio-economic stratum had on average 30 percentage points fewer of internet connectivity than those in the middle classes. Although cybercafes equalized access, those with cybercafé access were less likely to read the news online, have a social network profile, or create content on their personal webpages or blogs. The first wave of the survey also showed that access to different type of media is related to demographic characteristics such as age, sex and education level. Although access to television and radio tend to be less influenced by these features, access to cable or satellite television was reduced among those with lower SES and education level. Moreover, access to internet appeared to be influenced by the same factors as access to print newspapers. Cell-phone internet access, saluted by some authors as a democratizing force, was only available to 26% of the sample, and skewed by location and education level. Levels of political information increased between wave 1 and wave 2 of the survey, and access to print newspapers and internet news proved to be positively related to levels of political knowledge. However, other factors, such as internal and external efficacy, and belief in the fairness of the election were not significant. By comparison, levels of political expression were positively associated with attention to internet news (but not other types of news media consumption) and confidence in media. Interestingly, those with more confidence in politicians were less likely to express their political views. In turn, political information levels and political expression levels were positively and strongly related with political participation. Although access to news media was not directly related to political participation, the statistical analysis shows an indirect relationship, by which access to newspapers and online news is positively related to political information levels and political expression, which in turn are related to political participation.
