Browsing by Author "Lezama Ruiz, Lia Verónica"

This research analyses how Venezuelans abroad engaged in political communication through Facebook during the presidential elections of October 2012. This question is anchor in three different contexts: political and social polarization, increment of Venezuelan immigration and the use of new media as a field of interaction. The study first looks at the theoretical ground that provides a platform for the research, then explains the theoretical concept of public sphere, participation, community and social movements under the notion of the network society. Furthermore, some contextual background of Venezuela is presented in order to frame the origins of the political and social polarization in the country. This research combines quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to analyse textual and visual data generated during the Venezuelan presidential election in the Facebook group 'Venezuelans abroad'. The large number of data collected offered a suitable material to outline topics of discussion, supporting material and sources of information through the quantitative approach. Meanwhile, the qualitative approach uses netnography design in order to make sense of the data collected in terms of political engagement. The study collected the data from a period of three days, consisting of the day before the presidential election, the day of election and the day after the election. The result of the analysis suggests that Venezuelans abroad used Facebook as a platform for campaigning the two main presidential candidates Hugo Chávez Frías and Henrique Capriles bypassing the rules of the electoral council. Due to the structural nature of communication in the new media, Venezuelans abroad could select their reliable sources of information and supporting material to generate their own content. Moreover, the close reading of the data suggests that Venezuelans abroad used Facebook to express their ideas, political interest and demands towards what they considered to be good or bad for the health of democracy, hence, Facebook represented the virtual space in which Venezuelans abroad reunited to produce their content, to debate, confront, affiliate and support other members of the group.