doxa.comunicación | 30, pp. 55-77 | 59

January-June of 2020

Marcos Zumárraga-Espinosa

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

media and conventional political behaviour in the offline environment (Kim, Hsu & Gil de Zúñiga, 2013; Xenos, Vromen & Loader, 2014). This relationship also tends to be conditioned by properties of the user’s digital social network, such as its size or heterogeneity (Campbell & Kwak, 2011). In addressing the political use of digital platforms, it has been observed that the expressive use tends to increase the effect of informational uses (reading news on political or social issues, visiting online forums or sharing political content, among others) on offline political participation (Yamamoto et al., 2015). The interaction effect has been theoretically explained from the differential gains model (Hardy & Scheufele, 2005). In the case of political protest, the findings made by Valenzuela et al. (2016) from data from seventeen Latin American countries suggest that aspects such as gender, age, political ideology and interaction with social organizations moderate the relationship between the informational political use of social network sites (Facebook, Twitter and Orkut) and participation in protest actions. It has also been observed that the inclination towards postmaterialist values in cultural terms does not constitute a significant moderator (Valenzuela et al., 2012).

According to the civic voluntarism model proposed by Verba, Schlozman and Brady (1995) the availability of cognitive and material resources (money, time and civic skills), just as links with associations of a political nature are important predictors of offline political participation. However, there is a possibility that these factors also condition the mobilizing impact of political use of social media over offline participation, including protest behaviours. The incorporation of the digital sphere into political life has been accompanied by optimistic and pessimistic views on the internet’s potential for strengthening democracy. From an optimistic perspective, the online environment offers a less expensive alternative to participation in political activities. This facilitates the political mobilization of those who have been inactive offline because of their resource constraints (Krueger, 2002). On the contrary, the pessimistic perspective proposes that the internet and advances in communication technologies tend to be exploited by the same people who are politically active offline. In other words, the available resources continue to play a decisive role in seizing the opportunities provided by the digital sphere in terms of political action (Schlozman, Verba & Brady, 2010).

Several researches have been proposed to verify these conflicting theses, finding in some cases that while aspects such as education and income level continue to positively influence online political participation, their effect tends to be less than exercised on offline activism (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2012; Winneg, 2009). Once access to the Internet is available, resources cease to limit digital political behaviours (Anduiza, Gallego & Cantijoch, 2010). In addition, the emergence of a sector of the population that, being inactive at the offline level, reports online political behaviours has also been observed (Nam, 2012). Other studies have even found that individuals with lower socioeconomic status tend to report higher online participation (Krueger, 2002; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2010; Yoo & Gil de Zúñiga, 2019; Zumárraga-Espinosa, Carofilis-Cedeño & Reyes-Valenzuela, 2017).

The findings suggest that the internet and social media could contribute to greater democratization of political participation among members of society. In this regard, empirical research developed by Morris and Morris (2013) shows that internet use has a strongest impact on the political behaviour of those in the lowest socioeconomic strata. A tentative explanation proposes that people with lower education and income derive greater benefits in terms of learning and consolidation of political attitudes thanks to the facilities provided by the Internet. This makes sense because the digital space substantially reduces the difficulties that disadvantaged groups traditionally faced in accessing information and news on public affairs,