SNS and 2012 Mexican elections

After observing how the Internet was a key to Barack Obama’s 2008 victory, politics and the web 2.0 now go hand to hand.  Now, in the current Mexican presidential elections, we were looking forward to see how the candidates were going to use the web 2.0 tools to maybe replicate this phenomenon.  Sadly, this did not occur at all*.

The Mexican politicians wasted the big opportunities that the Internet provides for engaging audiences, creating networks and gaining voters, since they basically replicated the traditional marketing campaigns and brought them to the web: making promotional videos, doing banners, uploading photos to the Facebook fanpages of the candidates, publishing news on their Twitter accounts, etc., nothing new, just the same content poured into the SNS.  The only novelty, and not a good one, was the use of bots in Twitter, specially bots from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

During this election, all the presidential candidates had an average presence online during the campaigns.  However, this constant exposure without a strategic use of the web 2.0 tools can turn these tools against politicians, just as we saw with the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN).  The candidate was pretty confident about him winning this election before his gaffe at the the Guadalajara´s Book Fair, and the offensive tweets of her daughter Paulina Peña afterwards.  Along with more appearances and mistakes, the Internet gradually became a mocking channel of EPN for a few months. Furthermore, the incident in the Iberoamericana University and the resulting movement #yosoy132 started to worry EPN's team in regards of the Internet and the impact that SNS have in creating or destroying personalities and reputations, thus, in diminishing his lead over his rivals.

What we can rescue about this experience are the communication channels produced online in order to follow the elections or the websites created to observe the online reputation of the candidates.  Moreover, the social mobilizations coordinated through social media lead to the first online debate between candidates and citizens  in Mexico.

This election opens opportunities for both the politicians and the citizens in different areas. With the exponential growth of the networks, the engagement  and number of potential voters can be amplified.   Moreover, a correct use of the Web 2.0 tools and a crisis management plan for social media can prevent a serious damage of online reputation.  Additionally, the candidates themselves must learn to use these tools in order to communicate with younger generations that might be apathetic and disappointed with politicians, but are 24/7 online.

* The growth of internet users in Mexico is quickly accelerating, being Facebook, YouTube and Twitter the most used social media sites (SNS). Thus, the Internet and SNS could have been key subjects for the candidates campaign strategies.  We must not forget, however, that unlike the American population during the Obama’s campaign, the majority of the Mexican population has no access to Internet, and the mainstream media companies are still the most important source through which people receive their information.

#YoSoy132

Social networking sites have been playing an important role in Mexico’s upcoming presidential elections. Twitter has been the most used site for organizing both in favor and against certain candidates in the Mexican politic scenario.

The most important phenomena concerning this elections and social networking is the movement called #YoSoy132 (#Iam132), a movement composed by students from different universities, both public and private.

This movement emerged in May after a protest done by students of the Iberoamericana University when the PRI Candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, was visiting that institution as part of his campaign events.  This party and several news media claimed that those protesters were not students, but people brought by opposing parties.

After this accusations, 131 students responded by uploading a video to YouTube showing their students ID and creating the hashtag #yosoy132 implying that the student 132 is anyone that agrees with or wants to join the movement.  This hashtag has been used both in Twitter and Facebook publications.

Since then, the movement has gradually expanded, both in offline and online environments .  It has generated citizen mobilisations in different cities throughout Mexico.   Moreover, it has been officially proclaimed that #yosoy132 is a movement against Enrique Peña Nieto.

During this months of political tension #YoSoy132 has done several events such as a protest against media bias in Mexico City, 2 protests against Enrique Peña Nieto in various cities throughout Mexico, a massive meeting for the media democratization and a protest in the biggest football stadium in Mexico during a football game.  


Different actions have also arisen from this movement such as the #Conciertoyosoy132 (#concertIam132), a music concert done by musicians that agree with the Movement.

But the most important event that this movement has accomplished was the first presidential debate in Mexico called by students where, except for Enrique Peña Nieto, all the presidential candidates agreed to participate.

With a dynamic and a little more flexible format compared to the traditional ones, this debate also included the participation of several students from different universities through digital platforms.  Moreover, the hashtag #DebateYoSoy132 became not only a national trending topic that day, but also a global one on Twitter.  Although they were some technical failures regarding the transmission (it was only seen online and on several radio stations), this event marked a milestone in the political history of Mexico.


#YoSoy132 is the second Mexican example after the Red por la Paz y Justicia (Network for Peace and Justice) that show us how this country is using the Internet and social networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook as an efficient tool for current social movements. We must acknowledge, though, that the vast majority of the Mexican Population has no access to the Internet.  Therefore, they might be not aware of this movements or the information they are trying to communicate.

However, since these online organization ends in an offline environment, the people involved can be an influence for their family members and friends, specially an influence for those who are not sure for whom to vote.  

The question still remains: will these online movements modify in a radical way how people will vote?  The results are yet to be seen.

Animal rescue organizations in the high-speed network society

PetRescue is a not-for-profit organisation that helps animal rescue groups across Australia by promoting dogs, cats and other pets looking for a home.

PetRescue began in 2003, with the creation of a website for promoting several pets.  Now, PetRescue is one of the most important animal adoption networks in Australia operating in Melbourne and Perth, and helping more than 650 animal rescue groups in accelerating the process of adoption by distributing photos and information about each pet. Any people interested in adopting can have a look of the pets in a click, saving time and physical effort, since a lot of this pets are delivered directly to your home or city. 

Their latest initiative is the PetFoster program, which, among other activities, seeks to encourage people into taking care of animals for a specific time until they find a definitive home. You just write an email telling them what type of animal would you like to take care of, and they will quickly connect you with a group living nearby your area.  

Examples about animal rescue organizations can be seen in every part of the world.  In my particular case, I, for instance, volunteer for a Mexican organization calles Comité por un Trato Digno para los Animales (Committee for a Worthy Treatment to Animals).  It has been through the power of internet and social media sites that we have been able to promote our dogs and cats, our activities and our futures plans.  We have just launched our Twitter site on March and although we operate in a local area (Mexico City), we are expanding our network of people.

This is just one example of how  living in the network society provides us with a quicker circulation of information and  the shortening of distances.  In this case you can access to the webpage  at home or at work at any time, and without having to move to a particular animal shelter to see your future pet.  As Crang (2007) points out, ‘the flexibilization of times enabled by ICTs breaks down work/leisure constraints, partly by breaking down spatial boundaries’ (Crang,2007:p.71).

REFERENCE 

Crang, Mike.(2007) ‘Speed = Distance/Time:Choronotopographies of Action’ in Hasan Robert & Purser, Ronald E. (ed.) 24/7 Time and Temporality in the Network Society. California:Stanford University Press, pp.62-88

www.petrescue.com.au

www.petfoster.com.au

www.twitter.com/poruntratodigno

TweetBalas

Tweetbalas (Tweetbullets) is a Mexican artistic digital proposal related to discrimination on social media sites, specifically in Twitter.  It is an art installation that can be seen at the Museo Memoria y Tolerancia  (Memory and Tolerance Museum) in México City.

This installation is constituted by a mechanism that shoots a paintball to the word "Mexico" for every 20 tweets in which discriminatory hashtags were used.   Hashtags such as #EsDePobre #Indio or  #ForeverSirvienta  (#YouArePoorIf, #indian #ForeverMaid) are some of the Top 10 discriminatory hashtags created by Mexican users.

In our connected world, equality messages as well discriminatory ones can go viral without even being noticed, specially discriminatory hashtags that, at the first glance can be perceived as "funny" or "innocent",  but deep inside are filled with an implicit belief that shows the mentality of a big group in the Mexican Society.