Abstract
In face of public discourses about the negative effects that social media might have on democracy in Latin America, this article provides a qualitative assessment of existing scholarship about the uses, actors, and effects of platforms for democratic life. Our findings suggest that, first, campaigning, collective action, and electronic government are the main political uses of platforms. Second, politicians and office holders, social movements, news producers, and citizens are the main actors who utilize them for political purposes. Third, there are two main positive effects of these platforms for the democratic process—enabling social engagement and information diffusion—and two main negative ones—the presence of disinformation, and the spread of extremism and hate speech. A common denominator across positive and negative effects is that platforms appear to have minimal effects that amplify pre-existing patterns rather than create them de novo.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Social Media and Society |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2020 |
Funding
This article is the revised version of a report on social media and democracy written for the Kofi Annan Foundation, and was submitted for publication with their permission. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research for this article was funded by a grant from the Kofi Annan foundation. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research for this article was funded by a grant from the Kofi Annan foundation.
Keywords
- Latin America
- fake news
- minimal effects
- political communication
- social media
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- Communication
- Computer Science Applications
