Social media, civic engagement, and the slacktivism hypothesis: lessons from Mexico’s “El Bronco”

Journal article

Does social media use have a positive or negative impact on civic engagement? The cynical “slacktivism hypothesis” holds that if citizens use social media for political conversation, those conversations will be fleeting and vapid. Most attempts to answer this question involve public opinion data from the United States, so we offer an examination of an important case from Mexico, where an independent candidate used social media to communicate with the public and eschewed traditional media outlets. He won the race for state governor, defeating candidates from traditional parties and triggering sustained public engagement well beyond election day. In our investigation, we analyze over 750,000 posts, comments, and replies over three years of conversations on the public Facebook page of “El Bronco.” We analyze how rhythms of political communication between the candidate and users evolved over time and demonstrate that social media can be used to sustain a large quantity of civic exchanges about public life well beyond a particular political event.

Authors: Howard, P; Savage, S; Flores-Saviaga, C; Toxtli, C; Monroy-Hernández, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
• Journal: Journal of International Affairs
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 55-73
• Publication date: 2017-01-29
• Acceptance date: 2016-07-30
• ISSN: 0022-197X
• Language: English
• Keywords: slacktivism; Social media; Facebook; Mexico