Presentación para la “Conferencia internacional sobre redes sociales: Implicancias para los negocios, política y sociedad”, organizada por el programa Do Future, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Charla: “La protesta en la era de las redes sociales” (24 de agosto de 2012).

1. Social media and
protest behavior
Sebastián Valenzuela, PhD
Facultad de Comunicaciones UC

2. Two correlated revolutions
POLITICAL-TECHNOLOGICAL

3. Túnez, diciembre 2010 Egipto, enero 2011
Madrid, mayo 2011 Londres (Tottenham), agosto 2011

4. Chile, julio 2011

8. Usuarios de Facebook en el mundo
http://newsofthemedia.com/2012/01/facebook-hit-1-billion-users/

9. Proporción de la población con
Facebook
http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-
statistics/?orderBy=penetration
Iceland
United Arab Emirates
Singapore
Chile 54,8%
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Australia
Sweden
UK
Malaysia
0 20 40 60 80 100

10. DATUM
IN CHILE, TWO-THIRDS OF URBAN RESIDENTS AGED
18 TO 29 CONNECTS TO FACEBOOK ON A DAILY BASIS
Periodismo UDP - Feedback, Encuesta Jóvenes y Participación, 2011

11. Correlation is not necessarily
causation. Yet,…
CAUSES AND EFFECTS

13. ViralMS

15. Surveys on Youth and Particioation
2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012
Universe: adults aged 18-29 living in main urban areas (Greater
Santiago, Concepción-Talcahuano and Valparaíso-Viña del Mar)
Sample: multistage area probability sample stratified by geographical
region.
Mode: face-to-face interviews
Sample size: 1,000 casos each year
Variables: sociodemographics, media use, attitudes (trust, efficacy,
values, grievances, etc.), political and civic participation, protest
behavior
Fieldwork: Feedback S.A.

16. Who uses social media in Chile
USERS

18. USERS v NONUSERS
• More political interest
• Less likely to self-censor political opinions
• More political discussion
• (FB only) Less time spent using mainstream news
• (TW only) Higher levels of political self-efficacy
*Comparison of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter users who use these sites onca a week at least
with users who use these sites less frequently. Differences are statistically significant (p < .05)
SOURCE: Encuesta Jóvenes y Participación

19. USERS v NONUSERS
• Similar levels of political trust (very low)
• Similar likelihood of having registered to vote (prior to
automatic registration)
• Less likely to vote in past presidential elections (except
for Twitter users)
*Comparison of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter users who use these sites onca a week at least
with users who use these sites less frequently. Differences are statistically significant (p < .05)
SOURCE: Encuesta Jóvenes y Participación

20. www.facebook.com/davidvonblohn

21. www.facebook.com/davidvonblohn

22. What do users do on
social media in Chile
FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

23. Obtain political information
POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE

25. Discuss politics with friends,
family, coworkers and peers
POLITICAL EXPRESSION

28. information + discussion + Z =
movilization

30. ¿What is Z?
• Other causes of protest behavior that need to
be taken into account if we are to estimate the
contribution of social media for protest
• At the individual level (Dalton, Sickle & Weldon, 2009):
– Political and economic grievances
– Human values
– Material and psychological resources
– News and information

31. What is the effect of social media
in protest behavior in Chile?
IMPACT

34. In 2011, frequent use of
Facebook was the third
most important predictor of
participation in street
protests, similar to the
influence of postmaterialist
values and twice more
relevant than political
interest and institutional
trust.

35. Mediating variables
Using social media for:
• Information: index of news use on social media
• Politica expression: index of opinion expression on social
media about HidroAysén, student movement and other
political issues
• Joining causes online: index of participation in political, public
or citizen-led causes on social network sites in the last 12
months (HidroAysén, student movement, etc.)

37. Effects of social media are
indirect and contingent upon
specific uses and gratifications
INTERVENING VARIABLES

38. Directions for future research
• The influence of social media in elections and traditional political
participation
• Triangulate survey data with:
– Content analysis of social media
– Social network analysis
– Longitudinal, panel surveys
• Cross-national comparative work
• DEVELOP THEORY!

39. THANK YOU!
This presentation can be downloaded at
http:// www.slideshare.com/savalenz
Research work and papers are available at
http://uc-cl.academia.edu/Valenzuela