Abstract

NORIEGA-CARRASCO, Enrique Iván  and  IZABAL DE LA GARZA, Evelia de Jesús. Social capital and political participation of Facebook users. Universitas [online]. 2021, n.35, pp.129-150. ISSN 1390-8634.  https://doi.org/10.17163/uni.n35.2021.06.

Mexico has witnessed some social movements initiated in social networks, which foster connections that enable social capital, the latter being closely related to political participation. This citizen power linked to democracy can have repercussions on institutions and economic development. In this context, this research has as its objective to determine the relationship of the social capital of Facebook users with their political participation. This investigation uses a quantitative approach through a survey applied to 389 Facebook users in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, as it is one of the Mexican cities with the highest percentage of internet users in Mexico in order to explain the phenomenon supported in a statistical analysis of correlations and linear regressions from data captured in Likert scales. The findings show that social capital in its online bonding dimension, as well as its online bridging and traditional dimensions through political participation online of Facebook users, significantly influence their traditional political participation, in other words, social capital of Facebook users affects political participation offline. It is concluded that social media social capital represents an opportunity to increase political participation, online and offline, and therefore pressure the authorities to meet the needs of their population.

Keywords : Social capital; social media; political participation; internet; democracy; participatory development..

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