Mobile instant messaging services and political participation: use and perception of usefulness by citizens in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n40a2129Keywords:
Political communication, citizens, mobile instant messaging services, participation, sociopolitical factorsAbstract
Mobile instant messaging services such as WhatsApp or Telegram have enabled new possibilities for the reconfiguration of democracy. Despite their popularisation, there is still limited research analysing the role of citizenship on these digital platforms in relation to politics. Therefore, our objective is to analyse citizens’ use of mobile instant messaging services for political activity and their perception of these platforms’ thirdusefulness for citizen participation. Additionally, we aim to determine the impact of sociopolitical factors on these uses. To achieve this, we conducted a survey through an online panel on the Qualtrics platform, launched in May 2023 and completed by 1,106 citizens residing in Spain. The results show that 91.32% of the surveyed users regularly use these digital platforms for political purposes, although their use significantly declines during election campaign periods. Generally, citizens are highly satisfied with using these platforms for involvement in public decision-making processes. Finally, it demonstrates how gender, ideology, and interest in politics are the most influential factors in the three variables analysed.
Downloads
Global Statistics ℹ️
|
1060
Views
|
1403
Downloads
|
|
2463
Total
|
|
References
Aguado, J. M. y Martínez, I. J. (2008). La comunicación móvil en el ecosistema informativo: de las altertas SMS al mobile 2.0. Trípodos, (23), 107-118.
Alonso-Muñoz, L. y Casero-Ripoll.s, A. (2022). Does population size matter? Political participation of citizens through mobile instant messaging services depending on the place of residence. Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 14(2), 249-265. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00071_1
Asociación para la Investigación de Medios de Comunicación (enero de 2020). Marco General de los Medios en España. Recuperado de: https://www.aimc.es/a1mc-c0nt3nt/uploads/2020/01/marco2020.pdf
Bayer, J. B., Campbell, S. W. y Ling, R. (2016). Connection cues: Activating the norms and habits of social connectedness. Communication Theory, 26(2),128-149. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12090
Bennett, W. L. y Segerberg, A. (2012). The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Information, communication & society, 15(5), 739-768. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.670661
Campbell, S. W. y Kwak, N. (2011). Political involvement in “mobilized” society: The interactive relationships among mobile communication, network characteristics, and political participation. Journal of Communication, 61(6), 1005-1024. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01601.x
Casero-Ripollés A. (2018). Research on political information and social media: Key points and challenges for the future. Profesional de la Información, 27(5), 964-974. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.sep.01
Casero-Ripollés, A. (2020). Servicios móviles de mensajería instantánea y Covid-19: oportunidades y limitaciones para la comunicación institucional. Anuario ThinkEPI, 14, e14d05. https://doi.org/10.3145/thinkepi.2020.e14d05
Casero-Ripollés, A. (2021). Influencers in the Political Conversation on Twitter: Identifying Digital Authority with Big Data. Sustainability, 13(5), 2851. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052851
Castells, M. (2009). Comunicación y poder. Madrid, Alianza Editorial.
Ceccarini, L. (2015). La cittadinanza in rete. Bolonia (Italia), Il Mulino.
Elishar-Malka, V., Ariel, Y., y Weimann, G. (2020). Rethinking Political
Communication in the Digital Sphere. The Journal of International Communication, 26(2), 190–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/13216597.2020.1771397
Frandsen, A. (2002). Size and Electoral Participation in Local Elections. Environment and Planning C, 20(6), 853–870. https://doi.org/10.1068/c0228
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Ardèvol-Abreu, A. y Casero-Ripollés, A. (2021). WhatsApp political discussion, conventional participation and activism: exploring direct, indirect and generational effects. Information, Communication & Society, 24(2), 201-218. http://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1642933
Gil de Zúñiga H. y Diehl T. (2019). News finds me perception and democracy: Effects on political knowledge, political interest, and voting. New Media & Society, 21(6), 1253-1271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818817548
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Barnidge, M. y Diehl, T. (2018). Political persuasion on social media: A moderated moderation model of political discussion disagreement and civil reasoning. The Information Society, 34(5), 302-315. http://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2018.1497743
Guzmán, G. y Sánchez Medero, R. (2016). El ecosistema digital de la comunicación política. In R. Sánchez Medero (Ed.), Comunicación Política. Nuevas dinámicas y ciudadanía permanente. Madrid: Tecnos.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. Nueva York (Estados Unidos): NYU press.
Karapanos, E., Teixeira, P., y Gouveia, R. (2016). Need Fulfillment and Experiences on Social Media: A Case on Facebook and WhatsApp. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 888–897. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.10.015
Lee, H., Kwak, N., Campbell, S. W. y Ling, R. (2014). Mobile communication and political participation in South Korea: Examining the intersections between informational and relational uses. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.017
Ling, R. (2017). The social dynamics of mobile group messaging. Annals of the International Communication Association, 41(3-4), 242-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2017.1374199
López-Tárraga, A. B. (2020). Comunicación de crisis y Ayuntamientos: el papel de Telegram durante la crisis sanitaria de la COVID-19. RAEIC, Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, 7(14), 104-126. https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.7.14.5
Marcos-García, S., Tirado-García, A. y Casero-Ripollés, A. (2023). Respread, mobilize and fragment the agenda: the secondary role of Telegram in the Spanish electoral campaign of November 2019. Revista de Comunicación, 22(1), 185-230. doi: https://doi.org/10.26441/RC22.1-2023-2993
Matassi, M., Boczkowski, P. J. y Mitchelstein, E. (2019). Domesticating WhatsApp: Family, Friends, Work, and Study in Everyday Communication. New Media & Society, 21(10), 2183-2200. http://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841890
Osah, J. y Pade-Khene, C. (2020). E-government strategy formulation in resource-constrained local government in South Africa. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 17(4), pp. 426-451. http://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2020.1715907
Pont-Sorribes, C., Besal., R. y Codina, L. (2020). WhatsApp como canal de información política en España: credibilidad, perfil de usuarios y compartición de contenidos. El profesional de la información, 29(6). http://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.nov.19
Plantin, J. C., & Punathambekar, A. (2019). Digital media infrastructures: pipes, platforms, and politics. Media, Culture & Society, 41(2), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376
Rodríguez-Estrada, A., Muñiz, C., & Echeverría, M. (2020). Relación de la participación política online y offline en el contexto de campa.as subnacionales. Cuadernos. info, 46, 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.7764/cdi.46.1712
Gil-De-Zúñiga, H., Weeks, B. y Ardèvol-Abreu, A. (2017). Effects of the news-finds-me perception in communication: Social media use implications for news seeking and learning about politics. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 22(3), 105-123. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12185
Stephens, M., Yoo, J., Mourao, R., Vu, H., Baresch, B. y Johnson, T. (2014). How app are people to use smartphones, search engines and social media for news: Examining information acquisition tools and their influence on political knowledge and voting. Journal of Information Tecnology & Politics, 11(4), 383-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.951137
Stier, S., Bleier, A. y Lietz, H. (2018). Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians, Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter. Political Communication, 35(1), 50-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334728
Tirado-García, A. (2022). Telegram como canal de autopromoción política en campa.a: El caso de las elecciones a la Comunidad de Madrid de 2021. Prisma Social: Revista de investigación social, 39, 25-47.
Valeriani, A. y Vaccari, C. (2018). Political talk on mobile instant messaging services: a comparative analysis of Germany, Italy, and the UK. Information, Communication & Society, 21(11), 1715-1731. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1350730
Vanden-Abeele, M., De Wolf, R., & Ling, R. (2018). Mobile media and social space: How anytime, anyplace connectivity structures everyday life. Media and Communication, 6(2), 5-14. http://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v6i2.1399
Varona-Aramburu, D., S.nchez-Mart.n, M. y Arrocha, R. (2017). Consumo de información política en dispositivos m.viles en Espa.a: caracterizaci.n del usuario tipo y su interacción con las noticias. Profesional de la información, 26(4), 641-648. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.jul.08.
Vergeer, M. (2015). Twitter and political campaigning. Sociology compass, 9(9), 745-760. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12294.
Vermeer, S. A., Kruikemeier, S., Trilling, D. y Vreese, C. H. (2021). WhatsApp with Politics?! Examining the Effects of Interpersonal Political Discussion in Instant Messaging Apps. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26(2), 410-437. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220925020.
We are social (2023). Digital 2023. Local country headlines. Recuperado de: https://wearesocial.com/es/blog/2023/01/digital-2023/
Yamamoto, M., Kushin, M. J., & Dalisay, F. (2018). How Informed Are Messaging App Users about Politics? A Linkage of Messaging App Use and Political Knowledge and Participation. Telematics and Informatics, 35(8), 2376-2386. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.10.008
Zamora-Medina, R., y Losada-Díaz, J.C. (2021). Nuevos escenarios para la conversación política: el uso de WhatsApp por parte de los partidos durante la campaña electoral de abril de 2019 en España. Palabra Clave, 24(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2021.24.1.2
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Alejandra Tirado García, Andreu Casero-Ripollés
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors retain their copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial, International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). The scientific community is free to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon that material under the following terms: Proper credit must be given (journal, authors, URL/DOI), and it is not used for commercial purposes.
How to Cite
