Information, Interest and Indifference: Structural and Contingent Reasons For Engagement During A Presidential Campaign

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Information, interest and indifference:

Structural and contingent reasons for engagement during a presidential campaign
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
for the degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Program in Media, Technology, and Society, School of Communication
By
Eugenia Mitchelstein
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
December 2014
INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE
Abstract
Information, interest and indifference:
Structural and contingent reasons for engagement during a presidential campaign
Eugenia Mitchelstein
Media technologies have often been presented either as panaceas to political troubles, or as
sources of inequality and incivility. This dissertation seeks to present a nuanced picture of the
linkages between social conditions, access to media and political engagement, based on a
comprehensive account of the complex relationship between the socio-political context, use of
media technologies, and information and participation.
This dissertation combines qualitative and quantitative methods during a year of data
collection in four different locations, to gain deeper understanding of the interplay between
contextual dynamics and demands and uses of information in various contexts. The findings
presented in this study serve to reflect on concepts such as the digital divide, monitorial
citizenship, the knowledge gap, and the spiral of silence. Regarding the digital divide, access to
and uses of media reproduce the social and educational inequalities that predate diffusion of
media and information technologies. Moreover, different types of access are linked with different
degrees of attention to news and participation, which challenges the notion that cell phones
might mitigate digital inequalities. Although monitorial citizenship theory predicts increased
attention to news during major political events, the evidence presented in this study indicates that
even presidential elections may not increase consumption of public-affairs information absent
other features, such as uncertainty about the winner and perceptions of political efficacy.
However, among those who do pay attention to the news, media consumers with fewer years of
formal instruction benefit slightly more in terms of political information than the more educated
respondents, which runs counter to the assumptions of the knowledge gap theory. Finally,
increased levels of political information are not always associated with increased engagement,
due to the belief that individual or collective actions cannot change the course of the campaign or
the overall political system. This leads to a spiral of real and figurative silence, as not only
political talk is reduced, but also participation. In sum, this dissertation sheds light on the
processes by which the public accesses information and acts or fails to act upon it, and provides
an explanation based on both individual and systemic conditions.

Acknowledgements
This dissertation reports findings from a multi-site, year-long research endeavor. Due to
its size and complexity, this endeavor would not have been possible without dedicated academic
mentorship. My advisor, Pablo J. Boczkowski, is one of the most inspiring figures I have ever
met, and I am thoroughly grateful for his dedication to my work. He encouraged me to do
research on a topic I am passionate about, provided invaluable guidance regarding theoretical
and methodological issues, and was a thoughtful and incisive reader during the various stages of
the dissertation writing process. He is a model to me, both as a scholar and as a teacher. My
thanks go also to Jamie Druckman, who reviewed my dissertation proposal, and offered
indispensable advice on both the theoretical framework and the research design of this
dissertation. Jim Webster has made insightful comments and recommendations on the proposal,
and encouraged me to think about audiences and citizens in novel ways. I am indebted to him as
well.
Northwestern University, and particularly the Ph.D. program in Media, Technology and
Society, were the perfect academic environment to conduct my work. I am indebted to Barbara
OKeefe, Dean of the School of Communication, for fostering a vibrant academic community,
Jane Rankin and Sheri Carsello for their help with grant applications, and Madeleine Agaton,
JaTaune Bobsy, and Sharron Shepard for providing able administrative assistance. The
community of graduate students provided mutual support and encouragement: Ericka MenchenTrevino, Patrick Hsieh, Lindsay Fullerton, Brian Keegan, Lauren Scissors, Aditi Raghavan,
Jeffrey Treem, Julieta Suarez Cao, Diego Rossello, Miklos Gostonyi, Carlos Freytes, Luisina
Perelmiter, Jael Goldsmith and Salvador Vzquez-Mercado, with whom I shared intense
scholarly discussions and also a lot of fun. Martn Walter provided valuable technical advice and
Ignacio Siles was a thoughtful reader.
Other scholars have also read parts of my work and offered thoughtful advice: Katherine
Cramer-Walsh, Jim Ettema, Jeremy Freese, Sallie Hughes, Juan Pablo Luna, Miriam Metzger,
Peter Miller, S. Shyam Sundar, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, John Zaller; and my colleagues at
Universidad de San Andrs, Carolina Aguerre, Robert Barros, Roberto Bouzas, Mariana
Chudnovsky, Khatchik Der Ghougassian, Alberto Fohrig, Hernn Galpern, Marcelo Leiras,
Federico Merke, Lorena Moscovich, Silvia Ramrez Gelbes and Diego Reynoso, among others.
This dissertation profited hugely from comments received during seminars at
Northwestern University and Universidad de San Andrs. I also benefited from feedback during
talks at the annual meetings of the International Communication Association, the National
Communication Association, the Latin American Studies Association, Asociacin
Lationamericana de Ciencia Poltica, and the Midwest Political Science Association.
This dissertation would not have been possible without substantive financial assistance.
The National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant and Northwestern University
funded the survey. I express my deepest gratitude to these sources of financial support.
I wholeheartedly thank the members of the public who agreed to share their thoughts and
experiences of media, political information and participation. I interviewed each of them in
coffees, convenience stores, offices, their own homes, and in one case, the waiting room of a
neonatal intensive care unit. This research would not have been possible without them. I would
also like to thank the Ozuna family, in Resistencia, who hosted me and showed me the ropes in
what was, until then, an unknown city to me. Finally, my late grandmother, Elsa Berli de Mller,
welcomed me in her home every time I visited Santa Fe to do fieldwork. I will never forget her
love, kindness and encouragement.
The studies reported in this dissertation benefited from the research assistance of Ailn
Anvole, Mayln Sandoval, Facundo Suenzo, and Celeste Wagner, who helped with coding and
transcribing interviews.
I am fortunate to have great friends who provided encouragement and a sense of humor
during the research and writing process: Sofa Facal, Sonia Jalfin, Carola Lavia, and Soledad
Simond always laughed at my fieldwork tales, which included missed buses and being lost in
remote locations. Leticia Barrera defended her dissertation when I was beginning to work on
mine and her advice on writing was always spot-on.
I would also like to thank my parents, Enrique and Elsita, who always believed in me and
encouraged me to do my best, and my older sisters, Andrea and Paula, who offered loving
support during the process. My younger sister Luisa, an economist, provided advice on statistics,
proofread parts of the manuscript, and even babysat for me so that I could write. Last, but never
least, I am forever grateful to my husband, Rubn Octavio Villn, who was a source of support
and comfort from the moment I began studying for the GRE exam until I wrote the final chapter
of my dissertation. I finished fieldwork when I was eight months pregnant with our daughter,
Matilda Elsi. She changed our lives in a million of ways, big and small, all delightful and
unexpected. This dissertation is dedicated to Rubn and Matilda.
Table of Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1:
The Revolution will not be Webcast .......................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2:
The Analogical and Digital Divide:
Media Access and Attention to News in Argentina
Before and During a Presidential Election Campaign ................................................................ 33
Chapter 3:
Do Elections Help Reduce the Knowledge Gap?
Evidence from the Primaries and the General Election in Argentina .......................................... 66
Chapter 4:
Between the Spiral of Silence and the Spiral of Cynicism:
Unequal Distribution of Political Participation during the 2011 Campaign .............................. 107
Chapter 5:
Information, Participation and Citizenship............................................................................... 140
References .............................................................................................................................. 156
Endnotes ................................................................................................................................. 182
List of Figures
Figure 2.1
Home Access to the internet by district and socioeconomic status (April 2011) ......................... 60
Figure 2.2
Access to pay television by district and socioeconomic status (April 2011) ............................... 60
Figure 2.3
Home Access to the internet by district and socioeconomic status (October 2011)..................... 61
Figure 2.4
Access to pay television by district and socioeconomic status (October 2011) ........................... 61
Figure 2.5:
Access to news by district and geographic location ................................................................... 62
Figure 3.1
Average number of correct responses to five political information questions, by location and
education level, in April 2011 (N=1600) ................................................................................... 88
Figure 3.2
education level, in October 2011 (N=1023) ............................................................................... 89
Figure 3.3
Average change in probabilities of answering correctly questions about political information by
level of education and news consumption the previous week, .................................................... 91
Figure 3.4
level of education and news consumption the previous week ..................................................... 93
Figure 3.5
Percentage of public affairs stories on the on the homepage of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral,
Diario Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by
Month ....................................................................................................................................... 94
Figure 3.6
Percentage of public affairs stories on the on the most read list of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral,
Diario Uno and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month .... 95
Figure 3.7
Percentage of campaign stories on the on the homepage of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral, Diario
Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month .... 96
Figure 3.8
Percentage of campaign stories on the on the most read list of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral, Diario
Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month .... 97
Figure 3.9
Homepage of Clarn on October 24, 2011 ................................................................................. 99
Figure 3.10.
Top ten most viewed stories on Clarn on October 24, 2011 .................................................... 100
Figure 3.11.
Homepage of Clarn on August 15, 2011 ................................................................................. 101
Figure 3.12.
Top ten most viewed stories on Clarn on August 15, 2011 ..................................................... 102
10
Figure 3.13.
Top ten most viewed stories on Litoral on August 15, 2011..................................................... 103
Figure 3.14
Top ten most viewed stories on Litoral on October 24, 2011 ................................................... 104
Figure 3.15
Top ten most viewed stories on Data Chaco on August 15, 2011 ............................................. 105
Figure 3.16
Top ten most viewed stories on Data Chaco on October 24, 2011 ............................................ 106
Figure 4.1
Average number of political voice activities engaged in during the previous year .................... 130
Figure 4.2
Average number of civic participation activities engaged in .................................................... 133
Figure 4.3
Average number of political participation activities engaged in ............................................... 136
11
List of Tables
Table 2.1:
Logistical regressions of access to media, on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status
(base case =high SES), education level (base case =less than high school) and location (base case
=City of Buenos Aires) (reporting percentage change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance
at the <0.05 level) (robust) ........................................................................................................ 63
Table 2.2
Logistical regressions of having read a print newspaper, watched news on television or accessed
news online during the previous week, on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status
(base case =low SES), education level (base case =less than high school), and access to media
(reporting percentage change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in
April 2011 (robust).................................................................................................................... 64
Table 2.3
(base case =low SES), education level (base case =less than high school) (reporting percentage
change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in October 2011 .............. 65
Table 3.1
OLS regressions of information on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status (base
case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), and news media consumption
(* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in April 2011 (robust) .......................... .....90
Table 3.2
12
case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), Information in wave 1 and
news media consumption (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in October 2011
(robust) ..................................................................................................................................... 92
Table 3.3:
Percentage change in odds of a story being about public affairs in general, or campaign-related in
particular, by site (base case: Clarn) and month (base case: January 2011), based on fixed effects
logit regression (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) ......................................... 98
Table 4.1
OLS regressions of political expression on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status
(base case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), news media
consumption and level of political information (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05
level) in April 2011 (robust) .................................................................................................... 131
Table 4.2
consumption, level of political information, expression activities in Wave 1, voting for the
incumbent, interest in the campaign (base case: no interest), trust in the media and in politicians,
and internal and external efficacy (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in October
2011 (robust)........................................................................................................................... 132
Table 4.3
OLS regressions of civic participation on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status
13
Table 4.4
consumption, level of political information, civic participation in Wave 1, voting for the
2011 (robust)........................................................................................................................... 135
Table 4.5
OLS regressions of political participation on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic
status (base case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), news media
Table 4.6
2011 (robust)........................................................................................................................... 138
14
Table 4. 7
Correlation between different indices of participation, in wave 1 (April 2011) and 2 (October
2011) ...................................................................................................................................... 139
Chapter 1:
The Revolution will not be Webcast
15
16
Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human
rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring
universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all States.1 This was one of the final
recommendations of the United Nations Report on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to
Freedom of Opinion and Expression, issued on May 2011. The UN is not alone in promoting
online access as a tool to promote development and democratization. Several authors propose
that media and information technologies would dramatically change democracies for the better,
due to increased levels of information, expression and participation. 2
At the same time, other scholars propose that media in general and online technologies in
particular are detrimental to democratic development. Before the spread of the internet, some
authors warned about television reducing trust in the government and political institutions, and,
consequently, civic engagement.3 For instance, Putnam has argued that attention to television
leads to reduced social capital. 4 After the spread of online technologies, Sunstein indicated that
the diffusion of the internet is connected to more polarized polities,5 and Prior has examined how
increased content choice may reduce interest in politics and, consequently, voter turnout.6 These
assessments coincide with Hindmans rejection of the claims that the internet may be beneficial
for society: beliefs that the Internet is democratizing politics are simply wrong. 7
At the time of the UN report, I was conducting the second round of interviews with
voters in four cities in Argentina with varying levels of connectivity and socio-economic
development for this book, to analyze in the interplay between media and information
technologies, access to information, and political engagement. As I interviewed respondents and
examined survey results, it became increasingly clear that factors such as economic resources
17
and level of local development, among others, influenced the possibility that people would gain
access to and make effective use of- communication technologies. Moreover, the kind of access
that citizens have to media, as well as the social and political context, has an impact on the use
they make of them. Finally, peoples beliefs about their own competence and their trust in the
political systems responsiveness also influenced the extent to which access to media served to
foster information acquisition and engagement.
The focus on revolutionary effects either beneficial or detrimental- of media is not
unique to the internet,8 and, as Boczkowski notes, it has played a valuable role in raising our
sensibility about the potentially radical consequences that online technologies...may have ... in
contemporary society.9 However, it has also obscured the ways in which actors make use of the
technologies. Williams notes that scholarship that has examined the interplay between
technologies of media and communication and politics have often been organized in two broad
fields. The first one, technological determinism, proposes that new technologiesset the
conditions for social change and progress. The second one, symptomatic technology, proposes
that the uses of media are symptomatic of some order of society or some qualities of human
nature which are otherwise determined. If television had not been invented, the argument runs,
we would still be manipulated or mindlessly entertained, but in some other way.10 Williams
proposed instead to study the uses of media neither as if they had been determined by the
technology nor as if technology were marginal to them, but as part of historical processes that
both make technology possible and influence its outcomes.
Media and information technologies are embedded in, and shaped by the social context in
which they appear,11 and modified by users expectations and the activities they
18
undertake.12 Farrell has suggested that different features of the media may have different
consequences for political life and has called for examinations of how various aspects of the
internet may influence politics in various contexts.13 As Bennett and Iyengar indicate, the study
of political communication processes in times of flux (both in the transition to personally
mediated society, as in the earlier era of transition to mass media society) requires us to spot
where the old and new formations come into play and what consequences those formations have
on the polity and the society. 14
In this dissertation I present a comprehensive account of the complex relationship
between the socio-political context, access to and use of media and information technologies,
and information acquisition and civic engagement. I focus on information and participation due
to their significance in post-industrial democracies. Media technologies have often been
presented either as panaceas to social and political ills, or as dark sources of reinforcement of
inequality and incivility. My research is positioned at the intersection of studies on political
communication and technology, and seeks to make descriptive, methodological, and theoretical
contributions to the scholarship on both fields to present a more nuanced picture of the linkages
between social conditions, access to media and political engagement.
Descriptively, this dissertation seeks to account for the importance of sociopolitical
conditions as one of the main factors influencing access to media. In turn, types of access, jointly
with social conditions, have an effect on the uses given to media. The potential to make effective
use of technologies, as well as the political context, influence the probability of acquiring
information. Actors seek to strike a balance between the effort of using media and the perceived
usefulness of the knowledge they might acquire. The terms of that calibration vary according to
19
personal characteristics, such as education level and socioeconomic status, and to peoples
perceptions of the uncertainty of the political context, the need for self-protection, and the
potential impact of the engagement with the polity. Those perceptions are based at least partly on
the social and political conditions that influence access to technology, which makes it extremely
unlikely for media to have any of the wildly positive or wildly negative consequences proposed
by some analysts. However, my research shows that access to media and information
technologies has some modest effects on knowledge acquisition and political participation across
citizens of different ages, socioeconomic strata and education levels.
Methodologically, this research design highlights the value of combining different
qualitative and quantitative methods, such as in-depth interviews, surveys and content analysis,
to gain deeper understanding of the interplay between contextual dynamics and demands and
uses of information. Most of the research on the digital divide is based on quantitative data. As
Van Dijk explains, although this produces vast amounts of correlations, it does not bring
forward the precise mechanisms explaining the appropriation and division of the technology
concerned in everyday life.15 The findings presented in this dissertation also underscore the
contributions to be made by longitudinal designs that rather than focusing on extraordinary (or
ordinary) political settings and assuming that it also characterizes their ordinary (or
extraordinary) counterparts16, seek to study various contexts and identify differences and
similarities across them.
Theoretically, these findings serve to reflect on concepts such as the digital divide, 17
monitorial citizenship, 18 the knowledge gap,19 and the spiral of silence.20 In opposition to the
notion that simply providing access to media and information technologies would lead to more
20
equitable polities in which all would feel equally summoned to participate, access to and uses of
media reproduce the social and educational inequalities that predate diffusion of media and
information technologies. When the perceived effort of listening to burglar alarms sounded by
the media increases, and the perception of self-protection diminishes, citizens are less likely to
behave as monitorial citizens, even in the final days of a presidential campaign. However, among
those who do pay attention to the news, media consumers with fewer years of formal instruction
benefit slightly more in terms of political information than the more educated respondents, which
runs counter to the assumptions of the knowledge gap theory. Predictable election outcomes,
jointly with the assessment that individual or collective actions cannot change the course of the
campaign or the overall political system, lead to a spiral of both real and figurative silence, as not
only political talk is reduced, but also political participation.
This research project also has normative implications, as it seeks to shed light on which
international, national and local policies might be used to promote effective use of technologies,
equal access to information, and democratic participation. Declaring universal internet access a
priority for all countries might contribute to democratize access, and, to a lesser extent, to
promote political knowledge and participation. However, eradicating poverty, fighting inequality
and encouraging governments responsiveness to citizens might be more effective in promoting
effective uses of technologies, equal access to information, and democratic participation.
What we know about access to media, information, and participation
To make sense of the interaction between the social and political context, access to media
and information technologies, citizens abilities and motivations, and political information
acquisition and participation, this project builds upon two domains of inquiry: research on the
21
relationship between access to media and political knowledge acquisition and participation, and
studies on media inequalities.
Studies on media use and political information acquisition and participation are grounded
on the idea that equal access and participation are essential components of democracy. 21
Research has found that individuals with higher levels of political knowledge are more likely to
participate in political affairs.22 In turn, participation has been linked to the stability and
legitimacy of a democratic regime. 23
In modern democracies, media play a fundamental role in relaying information to
individuals. 24 Media and information technologies, a key part of the media environment, are the
sociotechnical systems that support and facilitate mediated cultural expression, interpersonal
interaction, and the production and circulation of information goods and services. 25Thus, the
media environment with which people interact is a crucial component of the opportunity
individuals have to become informed. People create and manipulate their media environments, 26
within structural conditions that, in turn, respond to changes in agents practices by adapting to
them, supporting and promoting new patterns of behavior.27
Building on the centrality of media for political processes, research has examined
whether access to the media and information technologies in general, and the internet in
particular, fosters information acquisition and political participation. Scholarship on this issue
has fallen into two camps. This stream of research has tended to see technology as factor that can
generate or fail to generate- social and political effects. One proposes that the internet promotes
political information. 28A related strand of research proposes that access to online information
fosters civic participation;29 although the size of the effect is small in most cases.30
22
The opposite camp contends that online access furthers inequalities in political
knowledge and participation across social groups.31 Some scholars have drawn upon the
knowledge gap theory, 32 which proposes that infusions of information into society have an
uneven effect on citizen knowledge, as those who have attained a higher level of formal
education show greater gains than those with fewer years of formal schooling.33 Other scholars
propose that access to media fosters political knowledge only among those already engaged in
the political process.34Thus, although internet has been saluted by some authors as a
revolutionary medium allowing participation by ordinary citizens,35 research indicates that online
participation is limited by the fact that internet appears to widen, rather than close, information
and participation inequalities across socioeconomic groups. Moreover, some scholars have
warned about increased content choice in media leading to audience fragmentation, which may
allow most citizens to refrain from obtaining information about or participating in politics.36
The effect of media technologies on information acquisition and participation may vary
according to the political context. Some studies have shown that effects of the media may
increase during times of heightened political activity, such as elections or political crises.37 This
is partly because during those periods citizens increase their attention to news in general and
public affairs news in particular.38 According to some authors, citizens behave as monitorial
citizens, scanning the news, rather than following them closely at all times, and engaging in
action only when they feel action is required.39
In addition to partly determining the effort put into political information acquisition,
political context may also influence the extent to which citizens choose to discuss public affairs
and participate in civic life. Noelle-Neumann proposed that citizens who believe that they hold a
23
minority opinion are more likely to remain silent about their political views than those who
perceive themselves as part of a majority.40 Other factors, such as the level of responsiveness of
political structures, are also associated with variations in participation.41 Carreras and Irepoglu
have found that, in Latin America, higher levels of trust in the responsiveness and integrity in the
organization of elections is linked to increased voter turnout.42 Boczkowski linked the low levels
of online content creation in Argentina to the skepticism about the likelihood of positive social
change and the sense of powerlessness to alter matters that are perceived to be tied to powerful
political and economic interests.43
Despite the lack of conclusive findings regarding the link between access to media and
information technologies and political information and participation, scholars studying
inequalities in access to technology propose that promoting higher and more equitable levels of
connectivity would lead to higher levels of social capital44 and democratization in developing
countries. 45 The contending view focuses on the social factors that shape the use of technology
and argues that social and political inequalities predate and constrain diffusion of media and
information technologies and will not be solved by simply providing online access. 46 Research
on access to the internet in Latin America indicates that use of media and information
technologies varies greatly according to socioeconomic and geographic factors: wealthier,
educated and urban individuals are more likely to go online than poor citizens in rural areas.47
How I conducted this research
Most studies of the interplay between media and information technologies and society
have not been able to fully characterize the relationship between the existent socio-political
24
context, uptake and use of media technologies, and the consequences that uptake and use might
have for public life due to three main limitations.
First, research about access to technologies has mostly examined the conditions of access
and uptake of media and information technologies48 or the impact of social factors on use of the
media, 49 but it has mostly taken for granted that effective use of the technologies leads to
beneficial outcomes both for the individual users and society at large. Given the debate about the
impact of media in general and the internet in particular, the assumption of positive outcomes
should be questioned rather than assumed.
Second, scholars that have examined the impact of use of media on activities such as
information acquisition and participation have usually failed to differentiate between different
types of access. Survey research has mostly differentiated between users and non-users,50 but, as
Boulianne notes they do not involve a consistent definition of user (e.g., use anywhere versus
use at home).51 Moreover, while experimental research allows for a more precise assessment of
effects, the designs by necessity cannot differentiate across different types of access.52 These
approaches assume that media and communications technologies are used in a uniform manner
by all respondents, and does not account for how different types of access are linked to different
uses of media. Scholarship on the digital divide has moved beyond just differentiating whether
people had access to media and information technologies to what kind of access they have and
whether it facilitates effective use of the media.53 However, political communication research,
for the most part, continues to inquire whether respondents have access to the internet in general,
have gone online for news, or accessed a social networking site, while largely ignoring the
spatial-temporal coordinates of access.
25
Third, most examinations examined the role of media and information technologies in
one country or one city and then assume that their findings were applicable to
different geographic and political contexts. Ecological variables, such as the existence of
multiple media and infrastructure development, as well as aggregate variables, such as trust in
politicians and the media and level of education may moderate or influence the relationship
between access to media, knowledge and turnout, for instance. One exception is the study by
Durante and colleagues, 54 which examines turnout levels in Italian municipalities with different
levels of connectivity. However, because connectivity is their main independent variable, they
do not inquire on the extent or type of use voters and non-voters made of the internet, and thus, it
fails to account for the reasons that drove voters to or away from political participation.
In this dissertation, I address these limitations by examining jointly the political context,
the social conditions of access to various media and information technologies (free-to-air and
cable television, and the internet), and the uses people make of those technologies. Then, I
examine the links between one type of use of technology accessing news on various devicesand two dependent variables considered valuable for democratic life in modern polities levels
of political knowledge, and participation. Studies on media use and political information
acquisition and participation are grounded on the idea that equal access and participation are
essential components of democracy. 55Research has found that individuals with higher levels of
political knowledge are more likely to participate in political affairs, 56 as knowledge about the
processes of government and political issues assists citizens in effectively expressing these
views through political participation. 57 In turn, participation has been linked to the stability and
legitimacy of a democratic regime. 58
26
To account for how varying socio-political contexts may interact with information
acquisition and engagement, I conducted my research in four different locations with variations
in socio-economic development, political culture and levels of connectivity, before and during a
presidential campaign. The four locations are the city of Buenos Aires59, Jos C. Paz, the city of
Santa Fe60, and Resistencia in Argentina. Setting the research in Argentina was convenient due
to three reasons: first, there is a high degree of variability in access to media and socioeconomic
development. Second, it has been a poliarchy61 since it regained democracy, with free, fair and
periodical elections since 1983. Third, although it is a federal country, all the provinces follow
the same rules for the election of president (direct election with a two-round system; the country
works as a single district). This minimizes the possibilities of one district receiving more
importance than the others by the media and the politicians due to its status as a swing district.
The four locations differ in terms of size, population, socio-economic development and levels of
access to media.62
Moreover, rather than relying on single method of data collection, this research examines
the phenomena of information acquisition and participation through three different methods that
complement each other. The combination of in-depth interviews, a panel survey, and content
analysis, as well allows this dissertation to examine complementary aspects of the same
phenomena, to provide a rich and comprehensive account of the relationship between the
sociopolitical context, access to and use of media, information acquisition and political
engagement.
The panel in-depth interviews serve to gain understanding of the four districts social and
informational setting, and well as actors interpretations of access and use of media technologies,
27
and level of political engagement. I interviewed 46 respondents from the four locations, a year
before the election, six months before the election, just before the campaign had started, and a
few days before Election Day. The interviews complement the survey results by allowing the
examination of the interpretations underlying participants responses. 63
The research design also includes a two-wave panel survey, with one wave before the
campaign, in April 2011 (n=1600) and the other one a few days before the election, in October of
that same year (n=1023) at the four cities examined in this dissertation. Rather than taking for
granted that all access to media technologies is equal, the survey explicitly differentiates between
types of access to different media. I further examine the linkages across the political context, the
socio-economic characteristics of respondents, their technological uptake, the use to which they
put media, and their levels of civic information and participation.
This research is also based on content analysis of seven media outlets throughout the year
of data collection. 64,65More than 18,000 articles from the homepages and the most read lists
from news organizations from the cities studied in this dissertation were examined to ascertain
whether they contained public affairs information in general and campaign-and-election-related
information in particular. Content analysis provided an unobtrusive assessment of the media
environments66 to which citizens have access in each location, as well as the news choices of the
consumers of each medium. In turn, in-depth interviews and panel survey complemented the
content analysis, which does not allow making any inferences of audiences readings. 67
What lies ahead: plan of the dissertation
I begin the empirical study of the linkages between contextual dynamics, access to media
and information technologies and information acquisition and participation by looking into how
28
social conditions and access to media and information technologies are inextricably intertwined.
This chapter shows that access to media mostly reproduces social and educational inequalities
that predate diffusion of media technologies. People of higher socioeconomic status, with higher
levels of education, and who live in the capital of the country tend to have higher access both to
traditional media, such as cable television and newspapers, and to digital media. For instance,
someone who had completed college education had a 74% increase in the odds of having access
to cable television, and a 196% increase in the odds of having home access to the internet,
compared to someone who had not finished high school, even when controlling for other factors
such as socioeconomic status, age and gender.
The digital divide mirrors previous analogical rifts, and cybercaf access, which some
authors presented as a viable option to home access, was significantly more likely for the young
and those with higher socioeconomic status. The reproduction of privilege was reinforced by the
activities performed online: home access was positively related to going online for news, also
suggests that conditions of access of media and communication technologies may influence the
activities performed online. Lack of resources such as time and money-- or skills were more
often than not the main reason not acquire and access new technology. Those with home and
work access felt more comfortable with the medium, and had more time to go online, which led
to higher levels of online news consumption. These findings further challenge the notion that
cell phone or cybercaf connection would lead to increased information acquisition.
Levels of news consumption remained constant when comparing the responses six
months before the election and just before Election Day. This finding goes contrary to the
assumption that normally inattentive audiences behave as monitorial citizens during times of
29
heightened political activity. Interviews suggest that one plausible reason why attention to news
did not increase significantly was the predictability of the electoral outcomes: the incumbent was
certain to win, which reduced the need for self-preservation through information acquisition both
for her supporters and her detractors. Thus, the enactment of monitorial citizenship appears not
to be connected to the amount of information available, 68 but rather to the way citizens seek to
strike a balance between the perceived usefulness of the information and the cognitive and
affective effort necessary to obtain and make sense of it.
In chapter 3 I study the relationship between attention to news in various formats and
levels of political information. There was a small but significant relationship between news
media consumption and levels of public affairs knowledge. Although the effect of different
media on political information was not constant, online news consumption was positively related
to political information in both waves. Thus, although online news attention is not a widely
distributed practice, those who do go online for news are likely to increase their level of political
information. There is evidence of a knowledge gap before the campaign began, with the more
educated respondents obtaining more gains from attention to media than those with fewer years
of instruction, but this relationship is reversed at the height of the campaign. While a small niche
of the audience follows politics at all times, a larger group only becomes interested in those
topics at times of heightened political activity.
Analysis of news media supply and audiences most clicked stories indicate a greater
infusion of information and increased levels of interest among the citizenry in July and August,
right before the national primaries. Many respondents reported having lost interest in the
election, given that the results of the primaries served as almost perfect predictors of the results
30
of the presidential election Although interest in the election peaked in August 2011, gains in
political knowledge from the primaries may well be carried on to Election Day in October. Thus,
the effects of monitorial citizenship at one point in time need not be fleeting or spasmodic, but
rather benefit both the individuals and the society at large in the long run.
Chapter 4 examines the relationship between attention to news media, civic and political
engagement, and exercise of public voice. Levels of participation were low and unevenly
distributed across locations and socio-economic groups: college graduates in Buenos Aires
doubled the participation levels by high school drop outs in the poorer districts. Moreover, there
was a modest but significant relationship between news media consumption on print, radio and
online, and levels of expression and participation. This suggests that these media play a positive
role before and during the campaign, and might help reduce the participation divide. The lack of
a significant correlation between television and public engagement activities gives some support
to scholarly descriptions of television as a source of cynicism69 and a threat to social capital. 70
Regarding affective and cognitive factors for engagement, this chapter finds that many
respondents avoid both expressing their opinion and participating due to a sense of inadequacy
and fear of facing discord from family, friends, or co-workers at the ideas expressed. In contrast,
intending to vote the winner of the election was related to increased participation, which confers
further support for the spiral of silence theory. 71 Perceiving support for the preferred candidate
may increase engagement, which underscores the importance of perceptions as determinants of
political (in)action. I argue that primaries in which candidates run unopposed might not only
reduce interest in the election results, may also discourage participation and expression among
citizens, except those voting for the winning candidate.
31
The findings indicate that that the uptake of media and information technologies is
influenced to a large extent by the social context in which they are introduced. In turn, contextual
circumstances and types of access to media determine the ways in which technologies are used
by actors. Contextual factors, such as perception of system responsiveness, and the probability of
exerting influence over the outcomes, as well as technology-related factors, including availability
of the medium and the possibility of accessing it during long stretches of time, jointly shape the
types of uses given to different media and information technologies. Finally, uses of technology
for certain activities, such as attention to news and current events, have varying consequences in
different contexts. During times of heightened political activity, such as election campaigns,
attention to news may serve to reduce the knowledge gap between the more informed and the
less informed citizens, by reducing the cost of acquiring information in time and cognitive
resources. However, any effects of the media are necessarily modest, and cannot be expected to
dramatically change the fundamental variables affecting knowledge and engagement. These
include individual-level variables, such as level of education and socioeconomic status, and,
more importantly, contextual variables, such as the indeterminacy of political processes,
including elections, which is partly linked to the perceived levels of responsiveness of the
political system.
In chapter 5 I summarize the descriptive, methodological and theoretical contributions of
this dissertation and explain how they are important to understand the relationship between
sociopolitical conditions, access to media, and political engagement. The appearances of new
media are often accompanied by a focus on supposedly revolutionary effects, which usually
overrides any intentions of looking into what real, albeit modest, modifications the medium in
32
particular is making to political life, and, most importantly, how positive outcomes should be
fostered.
Government and non-governmental organizations from across the globe have different
options when looking at how to foster information-seeking and engagement. The first one is
doing nothing, and expecting the market to distribute access to media and technology. The
second one is to address solely the socio-economic conditions that predate and explain most of
the differences in access and use. However worthwhile that option, it is expensive and unlikely
to obtain returns in the short run. The third one is to develop the national infrastructure to make it
easier for service providers to increase their reach within the country. However, some research
has shown that families are reluctant to pay for the hardware and a monthly fee to access certain
types of media and information technologies.72 The fourth one is to complement the construction
of a technological backbone with a program of hardware distribution and subsidized connection
fees. Although universal access has figured prominently among policy and academic
recommendations, it is not always clear what it means. I propose that a policy of universal access
should equip every home with media and information technologies, rather than forcing the less
privileged to walk to a cybercaf or a library to go online
Will these recommendations suffice to reinvigorate public life and civic engagement,
amid a context of inequality, fragmentation, apathy, and reduced political efficacy due to
questioning of the responsiveness of political institutions? Probably not. But following these
recommendations will at least halter the reproduction of social and political inequalities through
access to media and information technologies.
Chapter 2:
The Analogical and Digital Divide:
Media Access and Attention to News in Argentina
Before and During a Presidential Election Campaign
33
34
I wake up and the newspaper has already been delivered (...) I read it and once I arrive at
my job, I read Clarn, La Nacin, Pgina, Perfil, some other news site (...) in the evening I watch
television, particularly political shows, some in Channel 26, some shows from TN (...) I watch a
little of each newscast, an hour give or take, to see what happened during the day (...) I like to be
up to date with news, particularly about politics, which I am very interested in (...) it is a way of
participating, getting informed might be the most passive way to participate, I am interested in
being informed, talking to people, discussing ideas. This is how Federico, a 30-year-old college
graduate who worked in the public sector in the city of Buenos Aires, explained his daily
information diet (a print newspaper, several news sites online, at least two hours of newscasts
and political television shows each evening)73. This was in late November 2010, almost a year
before the presidential election of 2011, but he was already paying attention to the campaign: I
am following (the elections), and I am interested, of course (...) Maybe it is a little early, I
suppose that beginning in December, when some candidates start to run officially there will be
more information, but I believe it is a subject that is on the mind of any Argentinean. During the
following year, he was interviewed again in April and October, just before the election, in a
stylish caf around the corner from his office, in the well-to-do neighborhood of Recoleta, just
before or after his workday. He remained an avid political junkie, watching political shows,
reading news online, and although his print newspaper reading habits faded, he kept the
subscription due to benefits for subscribers. Less than a week before the presidential election, he
explained that although it was very clear that (incumbent president) Cristina (Fernandez de
Kirchner) would win () who comes second is important, because it will be the one who leads
as the opposition.74
35
Ten days after the first interview with Federico, I talked to Maru, a 30-year-old single
mother of two, who was unemployed at the time. Less than 45 kilometers away, in the district of
Jos C. Paz, in a dirt yard with two dogs and a bunny, she described a very different routine of
acquiring information [In the morning)] I listen to CDs, then (...) at noon, when I return from
leaving the girls at school I turn on the television news. [In the evening] I dont watch a lot, it is
the same things Ive seen at noon (...) Sometimes we buy Clarn to look for a job [in the
classified ads]. (...) We dont have Internet yet (...) it would cost 100 pesos [25 US dollars] (...)
Id love to have internet access, I go to the internet to look for a job, I created my own page
on...what do you call it?...the Facebook. Maru explained her only access to the internet was at a
cybercaf a few blocks from her house, I go once a week, it costs one peso [a US quarter] (...)
I dont [get news] online, that is why I tell you, Id like to see more, because I go an hour, a little
while, to look for a job mostly (...) this is new to me (...) I had computer studies at school, but a
long time ago, all this stuff wasnt here, my daughter uses the computer better than me, I spend
an hour just to strike a key.75 Maru said she was not paying attention to the presidential
campaign but that she would like to know more about the candidates. In May of the following
year she had home access to the internet. She went online mostly for Facebook and job seeking
I am still not used to going online (for news), but I think it is more advanced than television.76
By October she had found a job at a plastics factory, and the interview was held on a Saturday
morning, the only free time she had between her work and caring for her children. Lack of time
also influenced her information seeking practices I didnt go [online], because, you see, I do
thing around the house, I clean, it takes time, if I am there (she points to the PC) I am not doing
anything. When asked about the campaign, she answered that she was not following elections
36
closely since she knew Cristina [Fernndez de Kirchner] would win, because the people who
already follow her will keep on voting for her.77
These two narratives show how access to media and communication technologies in
general and interest in news and politics in particular cannot be examined separately from the
social context in which the use of these technologies takes place. Scholarship has examined how
access to media and information technologies is distributed across geographic locations and
individuals with different levels of education and socioeconomic status,78 and research has
looked into how different people appropriate and make use of technologies, and the impact that
both access and use have on different aspects of social life, such as knowledge acquisition and
civic and political participation. There are two streams of research: the first one proposes that
access to media promotes information and engagement only among those who are already
interested in politics. 79 The second indicates that access to media could promote incidental
knowledge acquisition80 and political engagement among previously inactive populations.81
However, most studies tend to assume that all types of access to different media are the same
across different age, social and gender groups. This chapter aims to elucidate which social and
political factors influence citizens information environment and access to news. This research
finds that there are significant differences in level of access to media from one location to the
other and, within locations, across socio-economic strata, men and women, and young and old. It
proposes that that attention to news is influenced both by the opportunities offered by the media
environment, and personal characteristics such as interest and motivation. In doing so, this
chapter weighs in on two concurrent discussions in the field of media and communications: the
37
examination on whether new media complement or displace traditional sources of news, and the
debate between the full information and the burglar alarm model of citizenship.
Media access and inequality in Latin America
In modern democracies, media play a fundamental role in relying information to
individuals. 82 Thus, the media environment is crucial for citizens information. Prior defines the
media environment as the different media sources routinely available to people at any point in
time, which comprises the properties of the media to which people have access and the media
markets in which they live. 83 Media and information technologies, a key part of the media
environment, are the sociotechnical systems that support and facilitate mediated cultural
expression, interpersonal interaction, and the production and circulation of information goods
and services.84 However, the media environment is neither stable nor a product of conditions
completely external to the individuals. People create and manipulate their media environments, 85
within structural conditions that, in turn, respond to changes in agents practices by adapting to
them, supporting and promoting new patterns of behavior.86 Moreover, both the media
environment and the way audiences choose to interact with it may change during times of
heightened political activity, such as elections or government crises, due to increased interest in
news in general and certain kinds of news in particular.87
Several studies have shown that there are steep differences in access to media and
information technologies across countries and, 88 within countries, among different population
segments.89 However, comparatively less research has focused on regional differences across
geographical subunits of the same country. 90 Some scholars propose that promoting higher and
38
more equitable levels of connectivity would alleviate social inequalities, 91 lead to higher levels of
social capital92 and promote democratization.93
A different stream of research focuses on the social factors that shape the use of
technology. It argues that social and political inequalities predate and constrain the diffusion of
media and information technologies94 and will not be solved by simply providing online access.
Other researchers propose that access to the internet does not necessarily entail effective use of
technology. 95 DiMaggio and colleagues indicate that the question is less `who can find a
network connection from which to log on? than `what are people doing, and what are they able
to do, when they go online. 96 They suggest that differences across the technical means such as
the speed of the connection, the autonomy in using the web, the skills people bring to their use of
the medium, and the social support upon which internet users are able to draw, can lead to digital
inequality among online users.
Research on access to the internet in Latin America indicates that use of media and
information technologies varies greatly according to socioeconomic and geographic factors:
wealthier, educated and urban individuals are more likely to go online than poor citizens in rural
areas.97 Although lack of access could be partly explained by infrastructure deficits, Jordn and
colleagues find that there is a demand gap by which although broadband internet is accessible
to the majority of the population, large percentages of individuals choose not to subscribe due to
the cost of the service or lack of interest.98 These inequalities in access to media are predated by
steep inequalities across socioeconomic status groups and geographical regions. 99
Scholars have proposed several approaches to solving digital inequality in Latin America.
Some authors recommend that, in order to bridge this gap, telecommunications policy should
39
strive to offer universal access, characterized as access to media technology in every

community, neighborhood, village, or vicinity 100 rather than universal service (service to every
home), because given the budget constraints faced by Latin American governments, it is not
realistic to provide telephone lines, computers, or internet access to all households. 101
However, research on uses of media and information technologies indicate that autonomy of use,
or the freedom to use the technology when and where one wants to102 predicts effective use
and beneficial outcomes.
Information acquisition practices
Another aspect of the media environment has captured the attention of scholars who
study information acquisition: the relationship between news consumption in online and
traditional media. Two positions have organized the debate: one argues that internet news use
complements traditional media consumption, and the other that it displaces it.
The first group of scholars argues that the use of online media complements access to
traditional media. 103 For instance, drawing on uses and gratification theory, which argues that
audiences needs and goals shape media consumption,104 researchers propose that peoples
interests and motivations shape both their media environment and their information acquisition
practices more than media attributes.105 The opposite perspective, based on the principle of
relative constancy, 106 contends that there is a displacement effect, by which use of newer media
displace traditional media such as print newspapers and television. 107 Research suggests that
displacement is partly dependent upon demographic factors such as age and socioeconomic
status, with effects appearing to be greater among younger and more educated users.108
40
Access to media and information technologies is a necessary but not sufficient condition
for news consumption practices. Research has examined differences in attention to news across
gender, age, and socioeconomic status, and has found that men are more likely to access news
than women,109 and people of higher socio-economic status pay more attention to news.110
Authors have attributed these differences to diminished perception of the usefulness of news, as
well as lack of free time to devote to information consumption, among women and working class
individuals. 111
News consumption processes have also been the focus of the debate between the full
information and the burglar alarm models for information acquisition. The full information
model proposes that citizens want a fully-fledged provision of news, and that less that complete
and constant coverage of the most important issues facing society drives audiences attention
away from news media. 112 The opposing view draws on the concept of rational ignorance113 to
suggest that the news media should call citizens attention to urgent matters rather than suppose
that citizens follow all public affairs news closely. 114
Methods
This chapter relies on a mixed-methods approach, combining in-depth interviews, and a
panel survey. Data were gathered in four different locations before and during the 2011
presidential campaign Argentina. The rationale and methodological design draw on previous
work on regional differences within countries, such as Putnams, which examined institutional
performance in Italian regions with vast inequalities in social capital, 115 and Cleary and Stokes,
which explored the relationship between social trust and democratic quality across different
regions of Mexico and Argentina.116 Studying lower-level units, such as regions, provinces or
41
towns, is an effective strategy to examine multiple variables and simultaneously manage the
uneven nature of major processes of social transformation.117
Argentina is a fruitful setting to conduct this analysis due to two factors. First, the high
degree of intra-country variability in two key independent variables: socioeconomic indicators
and online connectivity. Second, Argentina is similar to other countries in that it is a competitive
democracy118, with a well-developed media system. The selection of locations studied aims at
creating a 2-by-2-by-2 comparison framework. Four districts were included: 1) a district with
high socio-economic indicators and high levels of access to media and information technologies,
2) a district with high socioeconomic indicators but low levels of access to technology; 3) a
district with low socioeconomic indicators and high levels of access; and 4) a district with low
socioeconomic indicators and low levels of access to media technologies. Information and
participation processes were examined in these locations at two times: before and during the
campaign, to measure longitudinal as well as cross-sectional variations.
The first district is the nations capital, Buenos Aires. It has the lowest percentage of
population below poverty level, and its population has the highest level of education. According
to the latest UNDP reports, Buenos Aires has a high human development index119 and has a
service-based economic organization. 120 It also has high degrees of connectivity, with 44.68
broadband connections and 36 residential internet connections of any kind per 100 inhabitants, 121
high levels of newspaper circulation, access to cable television122 and mobile and traditional
telephone service. 123
The second district is the capital of the province of Santa Fe. It also has comparatively
high income and education levels, and a large diversified economic structure,124 but lower
42
degrees of online connectivity, with only 3.4 broadband and 8.79 residential internet connections
of any kind per 100 inhabitants.125
The third location for fieldwork was Jos C. Paz, a district in the greater Buenos Aires.
The whole greater Buenos Aires, an industrial district in which deindustrialization has caused
chronic unemployment and structural poverty, 126 has more than a third of the population living
under the poverty line. In Jos C. Paz, more than 25% of the population have unmet basic
needs.127 Although there are no municipal-level data on connectivity, the whole province of
Buenos Aires has 8.42 broadband connections per hundred inhabitants, and anecdotal evidence
suggests that Greater Buenos Aires has higher connectivity and media circulation levels due to
its geographic proximity to the city of Buenos Aires.
The fourth district to be examined is the capital of the province of Chaco, Resistencia,
which has the second lowest human development index in Argentina 128 and whose economy has
a backward productive environment.129 It is also the province with the lowest level of
connectivity, with 0.25 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants. 130
In the first wave of the survey, 1600 subjects were interviewed across the four locations
in April 2011 (399 in Buenos Aires, 400 in Santa Fe, 400 in Jose C Paz and 401 in Resistencia).
Interviews were conducted face-to-face in Jose C Paz and in Resistencia, and by telephone in
Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. The AAPOR1 average response rate was 58%. For the second wave,
the same 1600 subjects were re-contacted, and 1023 answered the instrument (177 in Buenos
Aires, 228 in Santa Fe, 229 in Jos C. Paz and 389 in Resistencia), thus obtaining an AAPOR1
response rate of 64,2%.131
43
Different methods of interviewing were chosen because, on the one hand, the higher
proportion of apartment buildings in Santa Fe and Buenos Aires restricted access to housing
units to conduct face-to-face interviews. On the other, telephone penetration is relatively low in
the Resistencia and Jose C. Paz districts and conducting telephone surveys would have
introduced high levels of bias in the sample. In the telephone interviews, units were selected by
RDD (Random Digit Dialing) and by questions to fill population quotas by sex and age. The
interviews were conducted by live interviewers using CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone
Interviewing). In the face-to-face interviews, units were selected by polietapic random sampling
to select units and then questions about sex and age to fill population quotas. A local survey firm,
MFG, was hired to conduct the surveys, due to its experience working in the four districts.
To understand the motivations and interpretations that drive access to media and attention
to news, 132 this study includes in-depth interviews with citizens from the four locations.
Interviews were conducted at three points in time: October-November 2010, April-May 2011,
and September-October 2011, just before Election Day. The two final waves overlapped with the
first and second waves of the survey. Interviews allow exploring respondents social and
informational setting, as well as their motives and interpretations.133 Recruitment of citizens was
undertaken through a mix of strategies: a referral network of contacts, notices in churches,
schools universities and social network sites, and snowball sampling. This procedure yielded a
convenience sample of 46 respondents (12 from Buenos Aires, 11 from Jos C. Paz, 11 from
Resistencia and 12 from Santa Fe) of various ages and education levels. There were 24 women
and 22 men; 19 were between 18 and 34 years old, 16 were between 35 and 49 years old, and 11
were 50 or older. Nine of the respondents had less than a high school education, 26 had
44
completed high school or some half post-secondary education, and 15 had completed college.134
Due to sample attrition, 45 respondents participated in the second wave and 41 in the third wave.
The conversations were conducted in a place selected by the respondents and lasted an average
of 40 minutes in the first wave, 25 during in the second, and 34 in the third wave.
Access to media
The first wave of the survey established that there were significant differences in level of
access to media from one location to the other and, within locations, across socio-economic
strata. For instance, while in the city of Buenos Aires more than three quarters, and in Santa Fe
more than two thirds of the population had home access to the Internet, the percentage drops to
37% in Resistencia and 25% in Jose C Paz. Moreover, across all locations, people in the lower
socio-economic stratum had on average 30 percentage points fewer of internet connectivity than
those in the middle and higher classes (Figure 2.1). The differences across geographic locations
suggests that connectivity data given for a country as a whole mask important differences within
it: while Buenos Aires has first-world levels of connectivity, Jos C. Paz lags behind the levels of
some African countries.
Cable and satellite television was much more widely and evenly distributed across the
four locations, although there were still differences across districts and socioeconomic strata135
(Figure 2.2). In Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Resistencia, more than two thirds of respondents
across socioeconomic strata have cable or satellite television at home, and only in Jos C. Paz
did access fall below the 50% mark for those with low socioeconomic status. In Jos C. Paz
more than 7 out of 10 in the middle and higher classes had access to cable or satellite television.
These percentages suggest that home access to the internet is restricted, at least partly, by the
45
costs of the hardware and the connection. These findings confirm the existence of a demand gap
in Argentina. 136
The first wave of the survey also shows that access to media is related to demographic
characteristics such as age, gender, level of education, and socioeconomic status. Access to
broadcast television was not significantly associated to these factors, whereas access to cable or
satellite television was reduced among those with lower SES and education level (Table 2.3). All
types of internet access were significantly related to age, level of education and geographic
location. Younger respondents, men, those with more years of education and those of middle and
high socioeconomic status were significantly more likely to have access to the internet.
The strongest association was evident in home online access: extra year in age was
associated with a decline of 2.1% in the odds of having internet access at home, while for men
the increase in the odds of having internet at home was of 45.1%. Those in the middle class had a
decrease of 58%, and those of lower socioeconomic status a decrease of 90% in the odds of
having home access, compared to their more privileged peers. Those who had completed college
had a significant increase in the odds of having home online access compared to respondents
who had not finished high school. Likewise, those in Jose C Paz and Resistencia were
significantly less likely to have internet access at home than those in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe.
These associations explained around a third of the variation in internet access.
Access to the internet at work followed similar patterns (Table 2.1), except for the lack of
a significant difference between those of high and middle socioeconomic status. Institutional
online access, such as from a school local government office or library, was not significantly
related to gender or socioeconomic status, but was more available to young people and those of
46
higher educational level, and less to inhabitants of Jos C. Paz. Cybercafe access, in contrast,
which some137 had presented as a viable option to home access, was significantly more likely for
the young, those with higher socioeconomic status and level of education, and citizens of Buenos
Aires. Cell phone access was not significantly related to gender or education level. However,
older respondents, those with lower socioeconomic status, and those in Jose C. Paz and Santa Fe
were significantly less likely to have an internet-enabled phone.
From the first to the second wave of the survey, in October 2011, home online access
increased significantly in Resistencia and Santa Fe (from 37% of households to 43% in
Resistencia, and from 67% to 73% in Santa Fe), mostly due to increases in middle-class
respondents acquiring access. However, this was not the case in Jos C. Paz or Buenos Aires
(Figure 2.3). Finally, pay television access did not exhibit significant changes in any of the
districts, which suggests it is a much more settled technology (figure 2.4).
Unequal access to news
Access to news sources varied according to geographic location and wave of the survey
(Figure 2.5). Attention to television news was significantly lower in Resistencia during the two
waves of the survey, which may be explained by the fact that Resistencia was the only district
with significantly lower access to broadcast television compared to the other three. Television
was the most popular news sources both before and during the campaign, with seventy percent of
respondents in April, and 74% in October reported watching TV news during the previous week.
However, the pattern differed from district to district: television news viewership increased
markedly in Jos C. Paz and Resistencia, decreased significantly in Santa Fe, and did not change
dramatically in Buenos Aires. In contrast, reported print newspaper readership did not change
47
significantly from the first to the second wave of the survey: 52% of the respondents in April and
49% in October said they had read a print newspaper during the previous week. The pattern also
differed by district: newspaper readership increased in Resistencia, but did not change
significantly in any of the three other locations. In addition, this practice was significantly lower
in Jos C. Paz than in the other three districts, which could be explained by the fact that Jos C.
Paz was the only town that did not have a local daily newspaper.
Regarding online news, 27% and 30% of respondents reported having consumed news on
the internet in April and October, respectively. Taken together, these patterns suggest that during
the 2011 election, Argentinean citizens were not behaving as monitorial citizens. Otherwise,
they would have increased news media consumption from the first to the second wave of the
survey. As I will explain later, the in-depth interviews suggest that the predictability of the
Election outcome may have forestalled an increase in attention to news.
Those who gained access to pay television (N=63) between the two waves of the survey
did not change substantially their news consumption habits, which contradicts Priors findings
about switchers. 138 In contrast, among the 70 respondents who acquired internet access, the
percentage that had gone online for news during the previous week doubled from 15% to 32%,
while the percentage among the general population remained unchanged.
The factors associated with each type of news consumption also varied according to
geographic location and closeness to the election. Before the campaign, men and older people
were more likely to have read a print newspaper during the previous week: being a man
increased the odds of having accessed news in print by 60%, and each extra year of age was
related to 2 percent increase in the odds in the same direction (Table 2.2). Age was also
48
positively related to watching news on television. Respondents who had fewer years of education
were also significantly less likely to have read a newspaper, but the coefficients for
socioeconomic status, although in the expected direction, did not reach statistical significance.
Both respondents in Resistencia and Jos C. Paz were significantly less likely to have read a
print newspaper during the previous week than respondents in Buenos Aires. Access to other
media (pay television, internet at home, at work or at an institution) and attention to television
news were positively related to print news reading, even when controlling for age,
socioeconomic status or level of education. This casts doubt on the possibility that having access
to other media could lead to a decrease in newspaper readership. In the October wave of the
survey, being from Jos C. Paz, age, gender, education level, cell phone internet access and
attention to television news remained as significant predictors of newspaper readership.
Regarding attention to news on television, respondents in Santa Fe were significantly
more likely to watch television news than respondents in Buenos Aires in the first wave of the
survey. This could be explained by Santa Fe having a province-wide primary for Governor on 22
May, which could plausibly increase interest in news across the citizenry. Gender,
socioeconomic status, and level of education were not significantly associated with attention to
television news in any of the waves of the survey. Neither was having access to pay television,
which further challenges the notion that increased programming options reduce news
consumption.
In contrast, even when controlling for access factors, socioeconomic status and level of
education were positively associated with going online for news. However, the largest
coefficients were for the type of internet access available. Having online access at home was
49
related to a six-fold increase in the odds of having accessed internet news during the past week.
Work, institutional and cell phone access were significant predictors too, albeit with somewhat
smaller coefficients. In the first wave of the survey, cybercafe access was not a significant
predictor of going online for news. Six months later, only types of access remained as significant
predictors of attention to online news, and cybercaf access and attention to news on television
became positive and significant predictors of going online for news. Thus, while cybercafe
access might not facilitate access to news at all times, it may provide an outlet for interested
citizens, particularly at times of heightened political activity. The relationship between television
and online news challenge the idea that new media displace older media and suggests that the
two media may complement each other.
Media environment: constraints and choices
Interviews with citizens reveal that access to media was shaped by social and economic
factors, as well as by personal interest and motivation. However, the weight of each variable
differed by media. For the majority of respondents, rates of access to media and information
technologies did not vary significantly from the first wave of the interviews, in NovemberDecember 2010, to the third, in September-October 2011.
Broadcast television was the more widely distributed medium. All the interviewees
except two young women had access to broadcast television at home (the two young women,
both students living with roommates, chose not to have television). Mariana, a 25-year-old
assistant from Buenos Aires, said that she used to have a television set, with a cable connection,
but then she realized she didnt watch at all and she sold it, because we have a computer, with
internet access, [and] we watch movies there.139 Tania, a 20-year-old college student from Santa
50
Fe, decided not to bring a television set when she left her hometown to attend college because
when she was lived with her parents she didnt watch at all.140 However, access to pay
television was quite tied to economic considerations. Most middle class respondents across the
four locations had access to cable television, while those of lower socioeconomic status, who
usually lived in the periphery, evoked cost as the main reason why they did not have cable. This
is consistent with the findings from the survey. Yesica, a 26-year-old unemployed mother of four
from Jos C. Paz, said she did not have cable because it was too expensive. 141 Debi, a make-up
artist from the suburbs of Santa Fe, explained that there was no cable access in her
neighborhood, and that satellite television was too expensive. However, by the time of the third
interview, she had decided to acquire satellite television for the sake of her two year-old son,
Nahuel we were tired of watching the same cartoons over and over () I am happy now, when
(Disney Junior show) Art Attack starts I know he will stay quiet for half an hour.142
Newspaper access varied across locations: respondents in Jos C. Paz were less likely to
buy newspapers than in the other three locations, which might be explained by Jos C. Paz not
having a local newspaper. Christian was 37 years old, worked in his familys grocery shop, and
was easily one of the most politically active respondents. At the time of the first interview, in
October 2010, he has just graduated from college and was interested in participating in politics.
When I saw him again, six months later, he was quite certain he would participate in the
primaries as candidate to mayor of Jos C. Paz, later that year. At the time of the third interview,
in October 2011 Christian had already run (and lost) in the primaries, and although he was no
longer competing, he still followed politics avidly. However, he never read a print newspaper
because:
51
I do not socialize with people who read it () People might work in an office, and the
newspapers is already there, but we dont get [the newspaper] easily [in my job], and I could buy
it but it is not a source of information I would be interested in having. 143
Although there was a free weekly newspaper in Jos C. Paz, which was distributed in the
downtown area, respondents said it was too supportive of the local government. Silvia, a school
counselor, only bought a newspaper from Buenos Aires on Sundays. She said Ive read the
[local] free newspaper, but it only publishes information that makes the mayor look good.144
Maru, the single mother introduced at the beginning of the chapter, concurred They only show
(mayor Mario) Ishiis accomplishments: the house, the school, the pavement.145
In contrast, people who lived in Resistencia and Santa Fe reported buying their local
daily newspapers, even if they could easily read them online. Graciana, a 31-year-old lawyer said
she preferred Clarn (a newspaper from Buenos Aires), which had more news but she bought
Norte (the local daily) because the newspaper everybody reads here is Norte.146 Omar, 48year-old small-business owner also from Resistencia said I read Norte [but] I dont read the
politics section. I have no idea of what the editor thinks.147 Virginia, a 38-year-old assistant
from Santa Fe said she read El Litoral (the local daily) and she realized that it was on the side of
every administration () if Peronists are ruling it is Peronist, if the Frente Cvico is ruling it is
with them. These statements indicate that interviewees in Santa Fe and Resistencia who read the
local newspapers did so in spite of any political bias they might have had.
Older respondents were more likely to have acquired a newspaper reading habit and to
have kept it. Estela, a 58-year-old seamstress in Buenos Aires, said she subscribed to the
newspaper because she had done so for ages.148 Olga, a 55-year-old librarian in Jos C. Paz
52
said she had bought Clarn during all her life149 and continued to so. The relationship between
age and newspaper readership was also evident in respondents who said they read the
newspapers at their parents house. Daniel, a 38-year-old psychologist from Buenos Aires,
explained he had never subscribed to a newspaper and said the last memory of receiving the
newspaper every morning was when he was a teenager and lived with his parents. Then, the
newspaper arrived every morning under the door.150 Mximo, a 30-year-old public relations
agent from Santa Fe, said he read the newspapers on Sundays when he went to his in-laws
for barbecue.151
Online access varied according to age and socioeconomic status, which confirms findings
from the survey. Younger and middle and high socioeconomic status respondents were more
likely to have online access at home. Cost was mentioned as a reason not to have online access at
home by the less educated respondents. Lorena, a 31- year-old social assistant from Resistencia
said online access was too expensive for her because first she had to buy a computer.152
Debi, the make-up artist from Santa Fe said with a child that has to eat every day shed rather
pay for day care than buy a computer.153
Some older respondents had a computer at home but did not know how to use it to surf
the web. Carlos, a 58-year-old public employee from Resistencia said the computer was for the
rest of the family () At my age I am not in speaking terms with technology, I use the most
basic one, television. Eduardo, a 60-year-old plumber from Santa Fe, bought a used computer
and connected it to the internet with the help of his son. However, he did not use it: it is a thing
I have there, my fingers, my head are not good enough to use it, and so I turn it off. 154
53
Younger people in Santa Fe, Resistencia and Jos C. Paz that did not have online access
at home usually had at it school. Ricardo, a 21-year-old engineering student in Resistencia, said
he used the computers at college mostly to look for material for one of his classes.155 And
Yamila, a 20-year-old who was studying to become a teacher in Jos C. Paz, went online at
school to do work for the (teaching) institute.156
Access to media and information-seeking practices
However, access to media and information technologies does not necessarily mean
attention to news. Some young respondents who lived with their parents said they had a
newspaper at home but chose not to read it. Likewise, some older respondents who chose to have
the newspaper delivered at home also did not read it, either. Pablo, a 39 -year-old small-business
owner from Buenos Aires, said he subscribed to La Nacin for the benefits of club la Nacin
(a membership club that awarded subscribers discounts at several stores and services) but many
weeks, the newspaper goes to the trash can just like the delivery man left it on my doorstep: ()
folded, new, smelling new, it goes out with the trash.157 Respondents also buy the newspapers
for a number of reasons: six reported reading primarily the classifieds (either to look for a job,
buy a car or rent a house), and Maite, a 56-year-old lawyer from Buenos Aires, bought the
newspapers for the benefits for subscribers, such as Club La Nacin, but also looked at the ads
which detailed promotions in supermarkets.158
Most of the respondents who had access to television said they watched news, at one
point or another of the day, which supports the findings from the survey. The very few who did
not watch television said the main reason was lack of time I do not have time, said Ana, a 46year-old who worked cleaning houses in Santa Fe. When I get to bed, I turn on the television
54
and I fall asleep immediately.159 Gonzalo, a 27-year-old travelling salesman from Jos C. Paz,
said he did not have time because he was driving the whole day.160 In addition, a few chose
not to watch television news because they did not find it believable. Cynthia, a 50-year-old
architect from Buenos Aires, reflected that her work in designing and building a news station had
left her profoundly disappointed when she got to know the kitchen of television news and
thus television was not her source of information.161
For those who did watch television news, early morning was a favorite moment. I wake
up and I turn on the television news said Agustn, a 24-year-old employee in the private sector
from Buenos Aires. 162 Silvia, the school counselor from Jos C. Paz, echoed his words, Well,
what I do is, I wake up and I turn on the news on television. 163 So did Maximiliano, a 30-yearold small-business owner from Resistencia I turn on TN (a cable news network) early in the
morning.164 Thus, television news consumption appears to be for many respondents something
they do while they go on about their daily routine (getting dressed, preparing breakfast) rather
than something they devote their whole attention to. However, a few of the interviewees watched
news or political television news during prime time. One of them was Federico, the news junkie
whose news routine opens this chapter. In the same way behaved Ignacio, a 41-year-old public
relations consultant from Buenos Aires, said I watch a lot (of TV news) I love it; my wife
makes me watch less than I would want to because she hates that I watch TN (a cable news
station) all day.165
In contrast, regular access to the internet appeared to be a necessary but not a sufficient
condition for getting news online. Respondents who accessed news online had what Hargittai
calls autonomous use of internet, either at home, at work or on their cell phones. For instance,
55
Rodolfo, a 40-year-old public sector employee from Santa Fe said every day I read the
newspapers online (at work)...Pgina/12, Infobae, a little Perfil.166 Mariana, the assistant from
Buenos Aires, in the final weeks before the election, said she read the news online. On the
internet, I looked at Clarn, and Pgina 12. The basic information they published, where (the
candidate) held a rally, how many people attended and the highlights of each speech. 167 But not
all interviewees with autonomous access used it to get news. Marta, a 46-year-old teacher from
Jos C. Paz said she used her internet connection for the emails, Google, that kind of thing.168
Cecilia, a college student from Buenos Aires said I go online almost every day...not to get news,
but mails... [and] look at Facebook.169
Lack of interest in getting news in any format was explained by two main reasons: the
first was negative feelings, which led respondents to either avoid news altogether or to avoid
certain topics. Norma, a 51-year-old artist from Buenos Aires, explained in the first wave of
interviews that news get to me too much...Id rather watch cultural programming or a
sitcom.170 Maru, from Jos C. Paz, said, News makes you tired: always the same thing:
robbery, car crash, death.171 Other interviewees sought only sports or entertainment news:
Lorena, from Resistencia, commented that I cannot stand politics, I change channel because I
cannot tolerate it; when they talk about this or that person and nobody does anything [to change
things].172 The negative feelings intensified as the campaign progressed for certain respondents.
Norma declined to be interviewed for the third wave by saying I am sorry but I cannot help you,
politics is not my forte. Besides, it anguishes me.173 Some respondents explained that the
predictability of the election results made it less likely for them to be interested in news. Silvia,
the school counselor from Jos C. Paz, said she had not read the newspaper because she did not
56
feel like it (...); she had little interest in the campaign, because she did not like the president
nor the policies (the president) was implementing.174 Daniel, the psychologist from Buenos
Aires, said that since the primaries the election was a foregone conclusion, which reduced his
interest in the campaign.175
Other respondents, particularly women and the young, tended to link their lack of
attention to news to the cognitive effort needed to make sense of the stories. Estela, a 53-year-old
housewife from Santa Fe, said I follow politics very little because I do not understand many
things. Camila, a 22-year-old student from Resistencia, said there are stories it is very difficult
for me to understand...I dont understand anything about politics.176
Those who followed politics, in turn, were motivated either by their personal interest or
by a sense of civic duty. Maximiliano, a small-business owner from Resistencia, said we have
to know [about politics] because we vote... and bad things happen to us because we vote the
wrong way for not knowing.177 Even people who did not follow the news felt they should be
more informed. Marcela, a 29-year-old psychologist in Santa Fe, said you have to know what is
going on. You cannot live in a bubble. I live in a bubble, but I acknowledge it is wrong.178
Tania, who did not follow news at all, said of her (lack of) news consumption habits I know it
is wrong because you need to be a little more up to date. Sometimes I am ashamed to say I am
much uninformed.179
Concluding remarks
This chapter has shown that access to media reproduces social and educational
inequalities that predate diffusion of media and information technologies. People of higher
socioeconomic status, with higher levels of education, and who live in the capital of the country
57
tend to have higher access to both traditional media and new media. The digital divide mirrors
the analogical divide across most categories except age: younger respondents are more likely to
have internet access at home, at work and on their cellphones, and to get their news online too.
Public and cybercafe access, which some authors present as a viable option to home access, was
significantly more likely for the young and those with higher socioeconomic status.
Television was the most popular source of news across locations before and during the
campaign, followed by print newspapers and the internet, in that order. Access to pay television
did not have a consistent relationship with news watching. The existence of a local newspaper
was positively related to newspaper readership. Moreover, while newspaper readership and
access to online news vary according to socioeconomic status and formal education, even when
controlling for access, attention to television news is not significantly related to any of those
variables. Taken together those patterns suggest that the relationship between sociodemographic
characteristics, access to media and information technologies and their use may vary according
to which media and communication technology is being studied.
Home access to the internet was positively related to going online for news across the
four locations, and was the single most important predictor for attention to news online, over
others types of online access, such as institutional, cybercaf, and cell-phone internet
connections. The association between home access to the internet and attention to online news
also indicates that conditions of access of media and communication technologies may influence
the activities performed online. Interviews with citizens confirm that those with home and work
access felt more comfortable with the technology, and had more time to go online, which led to
58
higher levels of online news consumption. These findings further challenge the notion that cell
phone or cybercaf connection would democratize internet use.
Access to print newspapers and television in the first wave of the survey, and print
newspapers, television and online news in the second wave of the survey give support to the
complementarity thesis: consumers who choose to attend to news do so across platforms. Thus,
attention to online news does not displace traditional sources of information such as print
newspapers and television. The correlation between different media platforms, as well as
similarity in the factors influencing news consumption suggest that the artificial differentiation
between print, broadcast and online ignores manifold interpenetration of news consumption
across media.180
Interviews with citizens in the four locations show that interest in news is directly related
to interest in public affairs and to the belief that there is a civic duty to be informed. Avoidance
of news is linked to the expectation of cognitive effort and negative feelings towards news in
general and politics in particular. The constant level of news consumption six months before the
election and just before Election Day challenge the assumption that normally inattentive
audiences always behave as monitorial citizens during times of heightened political activity.
However, interviews indicate that one plausible reason why attention to news did not increase
significantly was the non-competitive nature of the election. The incumbent president was
certain to win, which made information-based self-preservation strategies181 unnecessary both
for her supporters and detractors.
These findings suggest that the level of information provided does not determine access
to news: a few days before the election, most respondents had not increased the news component
59
of their media diets. Attention to news appears not to be determined by the quantity of
information provided, as the Full Information182 model proposes, nor to the importance of the
issues being decided, as the Burglar Alarm183 model indicates, but rather to the way citizens
calibrate the usefulness of the information and the effort necessary to obtain and make sense of
it.
Access to media and attention to news is but one component of democratic participation.
While most research has focused on disparities in access and uses of various media and
communication technologies, some authors have called for research that examines what
outcomes are linked with access to various media.184 The next chapter will examine the
relationship between the information environment in the four locations studied, access and
attention to media, and levels of political information.
60
Figure 2.1
Home Access to the internet by district and socioeconomic status (April 2011)
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Jos C Paz (N=400)
Resistencia (N=401) Buenos Aires (N=399)
Santa Fe l (n=400)
Home internet access Low SES
Home internet access Medium SES
Home internet access High SES
Home internet access Total
Figure 2.2
Access to pay television by district and socioeconomic status (April 2011)
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Jos C Paz (N=400)
Santa Fe l (n=400)
Pay television at home Low SES
Pay television at home Medium SES
Pay television at home High SES
Pay television at home Total
61
Figure 2.3
Home Access to the internet by district and socioeconomic status (October 2011)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Jos C Paz (N=229)
Low SES
Medium SES
High SES
Santa Fe (n=228)
Total
Figure 2.4
Access to pay television by district and socioeconomic status (October 2011)
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Jos C Paz (N=400)
Santa Fe l (n=400)
Pay television at home Low SES
Pay television at home Medium SES
Pay television at home High SES
Pay television at home Total
62
Figure 2.5:
Access to news by district and geographic location
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
May
October
Newspaper
Jos C Paz
May
October
May
Television
Resistencia
Buenos Aires
October
Online
Santa Fe
63
Table 2.1:
Logistical regressions of access to media, on age, sex (Base case =female), socioeconomic status
(base case =high SES), education level (base case =less than high school) and location (base case
=City of Buenos Aires) (reporting percentage change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance
at the <0.05 level) (robust)
N=1600
television Satellite/
Home
Cybercafe Institutional
Work
cellphone
cable
Internet
internet
Internet
internet
internet
age
2.7*
0.1
-2.1*
-1.0*
-3.1*
-1.7*
-3.4*
male
-31.5
5.5
45.1*
-13.2
6.9
41.9*
14.3
SES
-57.2
-48.2
-58.5*
-58.5*
6.6
-24.6
1.2
Low SES
-62.8
-77.0*
-90.2*
-62.0*
-37.4
-66.2*
-44.3*
Jos C. Paz
-12.0
-70.8*
-86.3*
-85.1*
-46.9*
-51.2*
-57.3*
Resistencia
-84.7*
-37.2*
-85.1*
-89.6*
-6.9
-27.2
-26.4
Santa Fe
-33.6
103.3*
-22.8*
-82.5*
60.8*
-43.5*
-32.3*
48.4
53.0*
78.8*
46.7*
89.7*
122.4*
33.4
-11.8
73.7*
195.9*
55.9*
97.2*
369.1*
52.7
0.10
0.15
0.29
0.12
0.10
0.15
0.09
Medium
High
School,
some
college
Completed
College or
more
Pseudo Rsquare
64
Table 2.2
(base case =low SES), education level (base case =less than high school), and access to media
(reporting percentage change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in
April 2011 (robust)
N=1600
Print
Television
Online
newspaper
news
News
Age
1.7 *
1.4 *
-1.6 *
male
59.6*
15.8
21.3
Medium SES
-13.7
-8.3
-33.8
Low SES
-34.3
-20
-65.9*
-54.5 *
0.1
-51.2*
High school & some post secondary educ.
-24.1
29.5
-21.1
Pay television
34.9*
-1.4
-33.4
Home internet
31.2*
10.8
590.9 *
Work internet
40.8*
22.8
83.8 *
Institutional internet
40.8*
-13.9
85.3 *
Cybercafe
-11
6.3
3.7
Cell phone internet
26.8
49.2 *
42.5 *
33.7*
13,5
Less than highschool
Print newspaper
Television News
Online News
33.6*
0.7
9.7
-5.7
Santa Fe
-11.3
93.3*
4.7
Resistencia
-43.1*
-74.7 *
-13.5
Jose C Paz
-49.12*
-0.8
-1,2
0.13
0.12
0.29
Pseudo R-square
65
Table 2.3
(base case =low SES), education level (base case =less than high school) (reporting percentage
change in odds) (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in October 2011
N=1023
Print
Television
Online
newspaper
news
News
Age
1.2*
2.5*
-0.8
male
41.8*
-21.2
3.3
Medium SES
-26.8
111.7*
41.5
-44
75.6
-10.5
-31.9*
42.3
-45.4
High school & post-secondary education
-5.5
11.3
-35.6
Pay television
8.8
-6
9.7
Home internet
34.8
24.2
178.4*
Work internet
12.8
14.3
81.3*
Institutional internet
11.1
-16.7
24.4
Cybercafe
-13
-2.5
69*
Cell phone internet
36.7*
61.5*
77.7*
Television news
104.6*
Low SES
Less than highschool
Online news
22
Print newspaper
70.6*
68.6*
101.7*
20.5
-10.7
-15.9
-5.6
Resistencia
17
-68.3*
Jose C Paz
-40*
205*
-40.8
Pseudo R-square
0.08
0.15
0.2
Santa Fe

Chapter 3:
Do Elections Help Reduce the Knowledge Gap?
Evidence from the Primaries and the General Election in Argentina
66
67
-Do you remember which public office (chief justice of the Argentina Supreme Court)
Ricardo Lorenzetti holds?
-No, I dont remember.
-And which party has the most senators in the senate?
-Oh, now you are making me feel like shit.
Ignacio, a 37-year-old Public Relations consultant from Buenos Aires, felt bad about not
being able to answer some questions about public affairs. He was not alone, either in being
unable to identify Lorenzettis office, or in feeling ashamed about his lack of information. More
than eight out of ten of survey respondents in the first wave could not identify the Chief Justice,
and more than two thirds could not answer which party held a majority in the senate. In April,
during the second round of interviews, Maximiliano, a small-business owner from Resistencia,
promised that when you come back in October I will know everything about politics, the
candidates, [and] their policies. Ana, who cleaned houses for a living in Santa Fe, made a
similar pledge: I am going to get informed so that I can answer better (next time). Others
attributed their lack of information to lack of interest in politics. Tania, a college student from
Santa Fe, commented I dont retain facts because I am not interested in politics.
These accounts highlight the various relationships citizens have with the acquisition of
information about public affairs matters. Some voters are not interested and pay no attention to
these matters; others are not that interested but pay attention during important events, such as a
presidential campaign; and a minority follows politics closely all the time This chapter uses a
mixed-methods strategy to explore how the political context and the media environment interact
with the personal motivations that drive the level of political awareness at different times of the
68
political cycle. Drawing on a panel survey I examine what people knew before the start of a
presidential campaign and a few days before the election. Then I rely on a content analysis of
news media to look at what stories the media provided before and throughout the campaign
cycle. Finally, I analyzed the interviews to provide insight into how people make sense both of
the news and of their own level of political information.
The survey shows slight increases in political information from April 2011, before the
campaign started, to October 2011, a few days before the election. The content analysis of news
sites from different locations and a national cable news station indicates that the amount of
public affairs coverage did not increase significantly just before the October presidential election
at the seven sites examined. However, there had been a peak in coverage of public affairs news
in general and campaign stories in particular two months prior to the election due to the
compulsory presidential primaries on August 14 2011. At the height of the campaign,
demographic factors such as age, education and socioeconomic status diminished as predictors of
political knowledge. But attention to news through various media continued to be significantly
related to levels of information. These patterns suggest that elections, rather than media coverage
per se, motivate citizens to pay more attention to their political environment. The interviews
indicate that aversion to political information is explained, at least partly, by negative affect
towards politics, while attention to public affairs news is driven by feelings of self-preservation
the perceived need to know about politics to navigate a potentially changing environment. This
explains why the primaries -- which had unknown results-- probably attracted public attention,
and thus increased levels of political information, to a greater extent than the general election,
whose result was completely predictable by the outcome of the primaries.
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In this chapter I propose that political knowledge is influenced by the socio-political

context, in addition to individual characteristics, such as interest and motivations. Those attentive
to news acquired more information than those who did not pay attention. During the campaign,
the least educated benefitted more from media consumption than those with higher levels of
formal instruction. The findings from this chapter contribute to the understanding of two issues
connected to news media and knowledge acquisition: the knowledge gap theory and the
relationship between flows of information during a campaign and levels political knowledge.
Information and Democracy
Studies on media use and political information acquisition and are grounded on the idea
that equal access to information is an essential component of democracy. 185 Price notes that
Underlying the assumptions of an ideal democracy is a well-informed citizenry.186 Research
has found that individuals with higher levels of political knowledge are more likely to participate
in political affairs, 187 because knowledge about the processes of government and political issues
assists citizens in effectively expressing these views through political participation. 188 In turn,
participation has been linked to the stability and legitimacy of a democratic regime. 189
Political knowledge is understood as the range of factual information about politics that is
stored in long-term memory,190 and comprises a general familiarity with the institutions and
processes of elections and governance; the major domestic and international issues of the day,
and the performances and attributes of candidates, public officials and the political parties.
Political information and political knowledge will be used in this chapter to refer to the same
concept, as both terms come close to conceptual interchangeability, because political
information is at its root knowledge.191 Some scholar propose that, as knowledge in one
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domain of politics tends to be highly correlated with knowledge in others,192 political knowledge
can be measured through a simple, one-dimensional index of factual information about
politics. 193 This index should comprise opinion placement of parties and candidates (if their
positions are clear and public), identification of prominent political figures, and questions about
governmental structures and processes.
Although research has shown that political information is linked to news media
consumption, 194 the strength of the association between different types of media consumption
(print, radio, television, and online) and knowledge acquisition is a contested issue. 195 Some
studies have found that print newspapers readers learn more than television audiences 196 or
online news users, 197 while others propose that the relationship between media and political
information acquisition is mediated by citizens characteristics and motivations. For instance,
some authors propose that internet access fosters political knowledge only among those already
engaged in the political process. 198 Poindexter and McCombs conducted a survey and found that
adults who scored high on the civic duty to keep informed were more likely than those who
scored low to read national news and presidential election news on the internet.199 Yet other
scholars highlight the influence of the social environment on media consumption, information
acquisition and preference formation. 200 Research has shown that during times of heightened
political activity, such as the final months of a presidential campaign or a political crisis, increase
citizens attention to public events201 which might lead to higher levels of political information.202
Iyengar and Simon propose that campaigns are information-rich events () that educate
citizens.203
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Some scholars have drawn upon the knowledge gap theory, 204 which proposes that
infusions of information into society have an uneven effect on citizen knowledge, as those
who have attained a higher level of formal education show greater gains than those with fewer
years of formal schooling.205 For instance, Kim has examined media consumption and political
knowledge in South Korea and found that access to online news increased the gap in political
knowledge between social classes, and suggested that informational use of the Internet requires
cognitive skills and literacy that may impede the less educated from learning a great deal. 206
However, other researchers propose that the relationship between media consumption and
differentials in knowledge acquisition varies according to level of attention to media 207 and
political context.208
To explore the interplay between the political context, media environment, attention to
the campaign and political knowledge, this chapter draws on data from the survey and interviews
described in chapter 2. Moreover, in order to examine the news environment, a content analysis
of online news sites was conducted. Eight sites were examined: the counterparts of two
newspapers from the city of Buenos Aires, Clarn and La Nacin; two from the city of Santa Fe,
El Litoral and Uno; the online edition of the only Resistencia daily, Norte, a local online news
site from Resistencia, DataChaco, and the site of a national cable news network, Todo Noticias
(TN).209 The selection of cases aimed at capturing the news environment in each of the locations
studied. (Jos C. Paz did not have a daily or even weekly newspaper, local television station, or
regularly updated online news site. This lack of autochthonous news sources is suggestive in
itself, but interviews indicate that respondents who kept up to date with the news did so through
Buenos-Aires-based media.) However, participants from Santa Fe and Resistencia indicated that
72
although they read local newspapers and news sites, they preferred to watch national television
newscasts. Thus, although TN is produced in Buenos Aires, it is a proxy of national television
news.
Data were collected on 160 randomly selected days during 13 monthsapproximately 12
days for each monthfrom 10 November 2010 to December 3 2011, from Monday to Sunday.
On each data collection day, the author retrieved data at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Central Time, which
was 2:00 p.m. in Argentina and part of the most intense period of site usage during the work
week.210 For each of these days, the top ten stories that the journalists chose to display most
prominently on the site were collected. They consist of each homepages first ten stories
counting from left to right and from the top down in a grid-like manner. The most read stories in
made publicly available by each of these sites were also collected.211 The analysis focuses on
these stories because, from the universe of possible stories, they are deemed most relevant by
journalists and garner most attention from consumers and thus represent a suitable approximation
of the news environment and of consumers preferences, respectively. Online stories were
defined as text-based packages that included a headline; a story might, but need not, have multimedia features or links to related stories. This chapter examines 10,026 stories from the
homepage and 8,053 from the most read lists.212
The unit of analysis was the story. Three variables were coded: news choice, story
content, and campaign information. Variable and category definitions are as follows:
1. News choice. There are two categories:
(a) Homepage, the top ten stories that appeared on the homepage of each site.
(b) Most read, the top ten stories in the most read lists of each site.
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2. Story content. The main topic addressed in the story. There are two categories:
(a) Public affairs stories, dealing with news about politics, government, economics,
business, and international affairs. This includes stories about the activity of government, elected
officials, political candidates; the economy and business developments; and, events, happening
in other countries, about the state or international organizations.
(b) Nonpublic affairs stories, addressing subjects such as sports, crime, entertainment,
technology, and weather. This includes stories about sports teams and events; criminal activity;
visual and performing arts, and literature; medical, scientific and technological matters; and
routine and non-routine weather information.
3. Campaign information. Whether the story addresses campaign information. There are
two categories:
a) Campaign stories, this includes articles that mention an actual or potential candidate to
any office to be elected in 2011, poll results, political advertising, candidate debates, election day
organization, candidate rallies, speeches, and so on.
b) Non-campaign stories, this includes all topics that did not mention campaign issues.
The author and a trained research assistant coded the stories. Intercoder agreement was
assessed on a subset of 4% of the data. For the story content variable, intercoder agreement was
92%, and Cohens Kappa was .82. For the campaign information variable, intercoder agreement
was 98% and Cohens Kappa was .76.213 Disagreements were solved consensually. The author
coded the remainder of the stories.214
Political Information
74
In April 2011, six months before the presidential election, levels of political knowledge
were fairly low: on average, respondents could only answer correctly two out of five factual
political questions. 215 Respondents who had completed college answered correctly almost 2
questions, compared to fewer than two correct answers from participants with less than a high
school education (Figure 3.1). However, the greatest differences in political information were
across different locations. Respondents from Buenos Aires could answer correctly 3.37 questions
on average, compared to 1.93 in Resistencia, 1.76 in Santa Fe, and 1.27 in Jos C. Paz. The
differences across educational groups were consistent and significant in the four locations:
college graduates had higher levels of information than high school graduates and people with
less than a high school education. However, due to inter-district variation, participants with less
than a high school education in Buenos Aires could answer correctly more items, on average
(2.79) than college graduates in the three other locations.
Six months later, at the height of the campaign, participants could, on average,
answer 3.5 questions correctly. 216 Although there were differences across education levels and
locations, they were less marked than previously: respondents who had completed college
answered correctly 4 items, compared to 3 correct answers from participants with less than a
high school education (Figure 3.2). The difference across districts was also reduced: respondents
from Buenos Aires could answer correctly 3.90 questions on average, compared to 3.73 in
Resistencia, 3.66 in Santa Fe, and 3.02 in Jos C. Paz. What did happen between the first and the
second wave of the survey? The campaign for the primaries, the primary election, and the
campaign for the general election. The interviews and content analysis suggest that both citizens
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and the media increased their attention to public affairs news in general and campaign stories in
particular, not right before the general election, but during the primary campaign.
Access to news and political knowledge
The first wave of the survey shows that sociodemographic characteristics were
significantly related to level of political knowledge, and explained 37% of its variance:
respondents who had higher levels of education, higher socio-economic status, and were from
Buenos Aires were more likely to have answered correctly more of the questions (Table 3.1).
These factors remained significant when including news media consumption practices as
independent variables, although most of the coefficients were slightly reduced, and the
differences between high SES and medium SES respondents ceased to be significant. Media
consumption practices explained 2 extra percentage points of the variance in political
knowledge: respondents who had listened to news radio, read a print newspaper or accessed
online news during the previous week got right, on average a quarter of a question more than the
other participants. Respondents with higher levels of education appeared to gain more
knowledge from news media: among respondents who had finished college, having accessed
online news the previous week increased the probabilities of answering questions correctly more
than among respondents who had some college education or who had not finished high
school(Figure 3.3).
Six months later, at the height of the election campaign, the relationship between
sociodemographic factors such as age and gender and political information was no longer
significant, except for age and education (those respondents who had not finished high school
had lower levels of information). Predictably, higher levels of information in wave 1 were related
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to higher levels of information in wave 2, explaining four percentage points more in the variance
(Model 2). So was interest in the campaign: those with a lot of interest in the campaign could
answer on average half a question more than those with no interest in the campaign, when
controlling for other factors (Model 3). Regarding media consumption practices, having listened
to radio news, watched television news or accessed news explains 3 percentage points of the
variance in political information levels (Model 4). In contrast, neither having watched political
ads nor having received information from a political party increased levels of information. 217
Contrary to what happened before the campaign, just before Election Day respondents
with lowers levels of education benefitted more from news media consumption than more
educated participants: on average, the odds of a respondent with less than a high school
education answering the questions correctly if he had accessed online or broadcast news
increased more than for those with some college or a college degree (Figure 3.4). These results
suggest the flow of information during an election campaign may contribute to a temporary
reduction in the knowledge gap. Before the campaign, there were stark differences in levels of
political information across locations and socio-economic status. Although news consumption
increased the levels of political knowledge, it did more so for the more educated respondents. At
the height of the campaign, differences across socioeconomic groups had diminished, and
attention to news actually reduced the knowledge gap. Although the evidence from Chapter 2
indicates that news consumption did not increase significantly the weeks prior to the general
election, the content offered by news media might have changed, thus increasing levels of
political information among the citizenry. The examination of the media environment during the
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year previous to the general election allows this chapter to explore levels of political information
offered by news outlets before and throughout the campaign.
Media environment
Did the media environment contribute to the increase in the level of political information
among the population? An analysis of the homepages and the most read stories suggests it did,
although not in a straightforward fashion. The proportion of public affairs and campaign-related
information did not increase monotonically as Election Day approached, but rather got a boost in
July and August, before the primaries, and then decreased slightly. This might be explained by
the fragmentation of the electoral offer in the opposition to the incumbent, and the lack of
institutionalization of political parties218: the ten presidential candidates ran unopposed within
their parties. The incumbent, Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, obtained just over 50% of all the
votes, and none of the others formulas got more than 13% of the votes. 219 Thus, the primary
results were interpreted by the media, the politicians and the citizens as a forecast of the general
election outcome. Any gains in information from media consumption may be explained by
constant attention to media during the primaries and the campaign, rather than by last-minute
learning just before Election Day. Although there were no survey waves or in-depth interviews
just before the primaries, 220 the content analysis provides a window into the preferences of news
media and audiences throughout the year before Election Day.
This evolution can be visualized by comparing the patterns shown in figures 3.5 and 3.6,
which track the percentage of public affairs news on the homepage and on the most read list
choices, from month 1 (a year before Election Day, starting November 2010) to month 13
(approximately a month after Election Day, ending on December 3 2011).
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Although there are differences in the percentage of public affairs published on the
homepage each of the seven media outlets examined, there are also some similarities in the
evolution of media coverage (Figure 3.5). Nacin and the two media outlets from Resistencia
(Norte and DataChaco) had the highest proportion of public affairs coverage, followed by Clarn
and TN, while Litoral and Uno, from Santa Fe, had the lowest levels of public affairs coverage.
However, across all sites, public affairs coverage tends to peak in July and August 2011, the
weeks before the primary election. 221The odds of a story placed prominently on the homepage
being about public affairs increased 59% and 62% in July and August 2011, and 40% in October
2011, the month of the election, compared to January of that year (Table 3.3). These trends are
confirmed when examining the stories that covered the campaign: there were a higher percentage
of articles about the campaign on the seven sites examined in July and August 2011 than in the
month of the election, October (Figure 3.7). Moreover, the odds of a story placed prominently on
the homepage being about the campaign increased 236% and 177% in July and August, and
160% in October 2011, also compared to January of 2011 (Table 3.3).
How did the public of these sites respond to political information throughout the
campaign? Although audiences level of preference showed much greater variation across the
same sites, 222 the percentage of public affairs stories on the most read lists also appears to peak in
July and August. (The only exception being Nacin, the only site where the percentage of public
affairs stories among the most often selected by the consumers was highest in October 2011.)
The odds of a story in the most read list being about public affairs increased 67% and 99% in
July and August, compared to 60% during the final month of the campaign (Table 3.3). An
examination of the most read lists confirms lower interest in political stories in October than in
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July and August (Figure 3.8). The odds of a story being about the campaign also increased more
in July and August than during the month of the Election (Table 3.3).223
These patterns are confirmed by a comparison of the homepage and the most read stories
on Clarn the day after the primaries (August 15 2011) and the day after the general election
(October 24 2011). The day after the primaries, journalists prioritized political information: all
the stories on the homepage were about campaign topics (framed in green in Figure 3.1). From
the top of the page down and from left to right, the most prominently displayed story detailed
incumbent Cristina Fernndez de Kirchners press conference after the election. The other
articles were also about the primaries, including the congratulatory call the incumbent received
from the mayor of Buenos Aires (from a different party), celebrities voting, an interactive map
of election returns, and analysis of the results from Clarn columnists. News consumers on
Clarn also appeared to be interested in the campaign: nine of the top ten most clicked stories
were about the primaries (Figure 3.2). The most read item featured celebrities arriving at the
polling stations, the second most read examined the role the incumbents daughter played in the
celebrations, and the third one summarized the celebrations.
Ten weeks later, the day after the presidential election, all the top stories on the
homepage were also about politics, in general, and the election, in particular (Figure 3.3). The
most prominently displayed article focused on the high percentage of votes obtained by the
incumbent the highest since the return of democracy, described the events of the previous day
as historical, and highlighted that election results guaranteed a majority for the incumbents
party both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies. The homepage also included articles
80
about the election in some provinces (Buenos Aires and Santa Fe), analyses by the editors, and
an interactive map of election results.
Although the presidential election held on October 23 had arguably been more decisive
for the fate of Argentina than the primaries held two months earlier, news consumers appeared to
be less interested in election returns (Figure 3.4). On the ten most read articles, only five were
about the election: a story describing election results, another about how celebrities voted, and
articles about election returns in the city of Buenos Aires, Fernndez de Kirchners celebration,
and the results of the gubernatorial elections. Half of the most clicked stories were not related to
the campaign or even to public affairs in general: the second most read item was about
Argentinas ranking in the Pan-American Games, and the other four were about crime, the
Spanish soccer league, the death of an Italian pilot, and an Argentinian model in London.
Clarn consumers were not the only ones who became less interested in campaign topics
after the primaries. 224 While journalists at all news outlets chose to display prominently
campaign news both after the primaries and the presidential election, news consumers did not
appear to follow them with the same level of attention. On Litoral, from the city of Santa Fe, on
the day after the primaries, four out of the ten most clicked articles were about the election
(Figure 3.5), For instance, the top most read item described the behavior at a polling station were
former president Carlos Menem had voted, and the third most read article was about the election
returns and how they increased the incumbents chance to get reelected. The day after the
presidential election, in contrast, only two out of the top ten most red stories were about the
campaign or about public affairs (Figure 3.6): the third most read article examined results in all
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provinces, and the fourth most clicked item was a short story about a polling station official who
had died during Election Day.
Three hundred miles to the north, in Resistencia, the same pattern is noticeable on news
site Data Chaco. The day after the primaries, all the most read stories were about public affairs
in general and the election in particular: the top most clicked article featured an analysis of the
election by a local politician, and the tenth most read story covered the presidents speech after
the results were made public (Figure 3.7). More than two months later, seven out of the top ten
most read articles were about politics: the second and fourth most clicked items, for instance,
were about a car crash and two Spanish musicians touring Resistencia the next year, respectively
(Figure 3.8).Thus, on news outlets from three cities, with different readerships, interest in the
campaign was stronger the day after the primaries than the day after the presidential election.
The evolution of campaign coverage and interest in political news throughout the
electoral cycle suggest that, the media environment and citizen response to it changed from the
primaries to the election. From July onwards, the news media increased their coverage of
politics, and the level of attention to campaign news augmented, at least temporarily. Interest in
the campaign may have waned after the primaries appeared to predict the presidential election
results. Interviews with citizens from the four locations suggest that, for some of them, the focal
point of the campaign cycle was the primaries, but others maintained their level of attention until
October.
Political Information: I dont care, I hate it
Interviews with citizens from Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Jos C. Paz, Resistencia and
Santa Fe confirm findings from the survey and the content analysis and provide insight into the
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interpretive and experiential factors associated with the acquisition of political information, or
lack thereof. As described in the introduction to this chapter, in November-December 2010, only
9 out of 46 interviewees could identify Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti, 12 knew how long
senators terms were, and 14 could answer correctly which party had the most seats at the Senate.
Some participants reacted with embarrassment. For instance, Daniel, a 37-year-oldpsychoanalyst from Buenos Aires, said you probably think I dont give a shit about
anything,225 and Norma, a 51-year-old artist from Buenos Aires, said Im very
ignorantplease dont write down that I am fifty years old.226 However, others reaffirmed their
lack of interest in politics: Fernando, a 21-year-old college student from Santa Fe noted that I
dont know and I dont carebecause getting informed about that is like getting informed about
who plays soccer in Spain, [it is] information that doesnt contribute anything to my life. 227
Carlos, a 58 year-old public employee from Resistencia, cut short the interview by saying
politics, you are asking me about politics, I dont care.228
Younger and less educated respondents tended to have negative feeling towards politics,
which were related to less or not attention to news media, and to lower levels of information
Yamila, a 22-year-old college student from Jos C. Paz, explained In truth, I dont care about
politicsall the politicians say what they will do and then they dont (fulfill their promises), and
you still have to go out every day and do your job; things dont change, you have to get on with
your life.229 Omar, a 48-year-old small-business owner from Resistencia thought politicians
were untrustworthy and corrupt: I am disgusted by politics, [and] thinking about the ways
politicians talk. () Obviously whoever gets into politics solves his financial situation (se para
para todo el viaje) and forgets those who voted for him. That happens every time. 230
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Respondents more interested in politics tended to be older and better educated, and they
followed news closely both before and during the campaign. They cited either self-preservation
or the civic duty to be informed as a reason to follow public affairs news in general and
campaign stories in particular. Marta, a 46-year-old teacher from Jos C. Paz, explained I dont
like those who say oh, I dont watch the news. You have to know where you stand, because
when everything blows up you have to know which way to run.231 Agustn, a 24-year-old
employee in a private company from Buenos Aires, said politics is not complicated, but if you
dont give a shit you will never understand.232 The less attentive citizens also evoked the civic
duty to be informed. Camila, a college student from Resistencia, explained I dont know, but I
should acquire information (...) because being informed is a responsibility of all citizens; then we
complain but we are the ones who vote, so we should think about that before.233 Like other
respondents, she promised she would be more knowledgeable for the next interview, and like
other respondents, she did not fulfill that promise The truth is that I dont have any time, or yes,
I have time, but I dont use to watch the news.234
Political information during a campaign year
Lack of information was also evident during the second wave of the interviews. In April
and May of 2011 almost none of the interviewees knew that there would be compulsory
primaries, and much less could pinpoint their exact date, although it had been publicly
announced in January of that year. Cecilia, a college student from Buenos Aires, said I dont
know what (the primaries) are.235 Maite, a 56-year-old lawyer from Buenos Aires said she
wasnt going to vote because they were not compulsory. 236 Rodolfo, a 40-year-old public
employee from Santa Fe said I have no ideaJuly? August?237 Compulsory simultaneous
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primaries for presidential candidates were held for the first time in 2011, and the official
campaign, including television and radio advertisements, did not start until halfway through that
year. 238
However, in the last wave of interviews, an enormous majority of the participants said
they had voted in the primaries239 and all of them knew which party had received the most votes.
Carlos, a 39-year-old-lawyer from Santa Fe said I was more interested, or worried, before the
primaries, because I wanted to see how people would react to the situation and the
candidates.240 Jos, a 28-year old student from Buenos Aires, said Before the primaries I was
more interested, because the results were not clear (...) if you play a soccer match, and you know
you will win 3-0, there is no fun in playing.241
Like Jos, many respondents linked lack of attention to the predictability of results after
the primary election. Gastn, a 33-year-old small-business owner from Jos C. Paz explained a
week before Election Day: The election is already defined, Cristina (Fernndez de Kirchner)
will win and she will keep on doing the same.242 Ignacio, the public relations consultant from
Buenos Aires, expressed his anger both at the primaries and at the expected election results I
dont care because this bitch (the incumbent) will win. Ive considered not voting for the first
time in my life the results are already known, this primaries law was a trap to ensnare
everybody How could the politicians, the people, be fooled by these primaries? They didnt
make any sense () Like everything in life, while theres hope theres interest, the day you lose
hope you stop being interested.243
Although none of the interviewees disputed that Fernndez de Kirchner would probably
win the election, some continued to pay attention to the electoral process. For instance, Agustn,
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from Buenos Aires, said I am very interestedbut the results are already inThe only question
is how many votes she will get over the runner-up But if someone is not very involved in
politics, he only thinks that the president will win and thats it.244 Others were interested
because they wanted to make sure Fernandez would win, such as Norma, a 45-year-old
community organizer from Resistencia, who explained I have a personal interest because I like
what Cristina is doing (...) Thats why we are very interested in her winning, and she will win, of
course.245
As discussed in the previous chapter, news media consumption habits did not
change across waves of the survey. However, in the last wave of the interviews, a few weeks
before Election Day, some respondents remarked, not all of them favorably, on the increase of
campaign-related information on all media,. Jorge, a lawyer from Resistencia, complained the
media are swamped with campaign information, not only newspapers, but also television and
radio.246 Virginia, a secretary from Santa Fe, used the same verb they swamp you with
information...they over-inform you.247 Yet other respondents noticed a drop in the level of
campaign coverage since the primaries, as Pablo, the retired teacher from Jose C. Paz, who said
now even political talk shows are dealing with car accidents, because it is no use, interviewing a
politician who has already lost.248
Concluding remarks
This chapter has examined the relationship between political information, news media
consumption, and the evolution of the media environment before and during the 2011
presidential campaign in Argentina. The two waves of the survey indicate that there was a small
but significant relationship between news media consumption and levels of public affairs
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knowledge. This happens even when controlling for demographic characteristics in the first
wave, and for, interest in the campaign, attention to political advertising, and having voted in the
primaries just before the election. Although the relationship between different media and level of
political information varied when comparing before and during the campaign, online news
consumption was positively and significantly related to political information in both waves. This
suggests that, although online news attention is not a widely distributed practice (as discussed in
chapter 2), those who do go online for news are likely to increase their level of political
information.
The in-depth interviews show that two affective factors influence the level of interest in
politics: negative affect towards public affairs, which drives citizens away from political news,
and self-preservation, which leads respondents to media consumption, and potentially, increased
knowledge. Moreover, analysis of survey results indicate that, although there is evidence of a
knowledge gap before the campaign began, with the more educated respondents obtaining more
gains from attention to media than less educated citizens. However, this relationship is reversed
at the height of the campaign, during which media consumers with fewer years of education
benefit slightly more from following the news in various formats. These findings suggest that the
increase in campaign related information may close the knowledge gap.249 This resonates with
Zallers findings about cross-cutting effects of the media: high attention citizens respond to less
loud messages, while middle-attention citizens react to high-volume messages, such as the
campaign. 250 The reduction of the knowledge gap may also be explained by citizens catching
up with their more informed peers during the election, due to both feelings of civic duty to be
informed and preservation of the self in uncertain times. 251 The variability of interest in political
87
news by news consumers provides support for this interpretation. While a small niche of the
audience follows politics at all times, a larger group only becomes interested in those topics at
times of heightened political activity
This in turn is related to the analysis of the flow of information the year prior to the
presidential election. Although previous scholarship indicates that coverage and interest increase
monotonically towards Election Day, 252 the August 2011 primaries in Argentina, in which all
candidates ran unopposed within their parties, served as a virtual prediction of the presidential
election results. Thus, the primaries somewhat discouraged both attention and coverage to the
campaign 10 weeks before the polls. Although no waves of either the survey or the in-depth
interviews took place just before or after the primary, content analysis of news media supply and
audiences demands during that period indicate a greater infusion of information and increased
levels of interest among the citizenry. Primary campaigns may also provide opportunities to
acquire political information,253 and given that political information is defined as the range of
factual information about politics that is stored in long-term memory, 254 gains in political
knowledge from the primaries may well be carried on to the General Election.
Despite the positive relationship between news media consumption and public affairs
knowledge, there is some risk that media fulfill a narcotizing dysfunction, by which large masses
of the population mistak(e) knowing problems of the day for doing something about them 255
The next chapter will examine the relationship between access to media, attention to news,
political information and political engagement.
Buenos Aires
Santa Fe
Jos C Paz
Resistencia
Total
Completed college (SD = 1.47)
some college (SD=1.45)
less than HS (SD = 1.23)
Completed college (SD= 0.97)
some college (SD =1.14)
less than HS (SD= 0.97)
Completed college (SD =1.23)
less than HS (SD =1.67)

88
Figure 3.1
education level, in April 2011 (N=1600)
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Buenos Aires
Santa Fe
Jos C Paz
Resistencia
Total
completed college (SD= 1.40)
some college (SD =1.68)
less than HS (SD= 1.46)

89
Figure 3.2
education level, in October 2011 (N=1023)
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
90
Table 3.1
case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), and news media consumption
(* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in April 2011 (robust)
N=1600
Model 1
Model 2
AGE
0.01*
0.01*
Male
0.25*
0.21*
Medium SES
-0.30*
-0.25
Low SES
-0.75*
-0.61*
Less Than High School
-0.65*
-0.53*
Some college
-0.26*
-0.21*
Santa Fe
-1.48*
-1.50*
Jos C. Paz
-1.59*
-1.48*
Resistencia
-1.18*
-1.10*
TV news
0.12
Radio news
0.27*
Cell Phone news
0.11
Print newspaper
0.21*
Online News
0.23*
R2
0.37
0.39
91
Figure 3.3
level of education and news consumption the previous week,
based in ordered logit regression, holding all other factors at mean value (April 2011)
3.50%
3.00%
2.50%
TV news
2.00%
Radio News
1.50%
Print News
1.00%
Online News
Cell Phone News
0.50%
0.00%
Less than high
school
High School +
Some college
College +
postgraduate
92
Table 3.2
case =high SES), education level (base case =completed college), Information in wave 1 and
news media consumption (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level) in October 2011
(robust)
N=1023
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
AGE
0.01*
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Male
0.06
0.01
0.03
0.00
-0.01
Medium SES
-0.14
-0.06
-0.04
-0.14
-0.16
Low SES
-0.32*
-0.15
-0.12
-0.13
-0.15
-0.50*
-0.34*
-0.31*
-0.27*
-0.28*
Some college
-0.18
-0.11
-0.07
-0.05
-0.06
Santa Fe
-0.16
0.15
0.15
0.14
0.06
Jos C. Paz
-0.53*
-0.17
-0.19
-0.21
0.21
Resistencia
-0.01
0.26*
0.37*
0.33*
-0.27
0.22*
0.21*
0.19*
0.18*
a lot of interest
0.49*
0.51*
0.42*
Some interest
0.27*
0.31*
0.20
a little interest
0.02
0.03*
-0.03
TV news
0.31*
0.26*
Radio news
0.25
0.24*
Cell Phone news
0.03
0.02
Print newspaper
-0.03
-0.05
Online News
0.22*
0.19*
Information on wave 1
Political advertising
0.11
Contact by political party
0.12
Voted primaries
0.52*
R2
0.10
0.14
0.17
0.20
0.22
93
Figure 3.4
level of education and news consumption the previous week
based in ordered logit regression, holding all other factors at mean value (October 2011)
3.50%
3.00%
2.50%
TV news
2.00%
Radio News
1.50%
Print News
1.00%
Online News
Cell Phone News
0.50%
0.00%
Less than high
school
High School +
Some college
College +
postgraduate
94
Figure 3.5
Percentage of public affairs stories on the on the homepage of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral,
Diario Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by
Month
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Clarn Homepage
La Nacin Homepage
TN Homepage
Litoral Homepage
Uno Homepage
Norte Homepage
Data Chaco Homepage
95
Figure 3.6
Percentage of public affairs stories on the on the most read list of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral,
Diario Uno and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Clarn consumers
La Nacin consumers
TN consumers
Litoral Consumers
Uno Consumers
Data Chaco Consumers
96
Figure 3.7
Percentage of campaign stories on the on the homepage of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral, Diario
Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Clarn Homepage
La Nacin Homepage
TN Homepage
Litoral Homepage
Uno Homepage
Norte Homepage
Data Chaco Homepage
97
Figure 3.8
Percentage of campaign stories on the on the most read list of Clarn, Nacin, TN, Litoral, Diario
Uno, Norte and Data Chaco November 10 2010 to December 3, 2011, by site and by Month
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Clarn consumers
La Nacin consumers
TN consumers
Litoral Consumers
Uno Consumers
Data Chaco Consumers
98
Table 3.3:
Percentage change in odds of a story being about public affairs in general, or campaign-related in
particular, by site (base case: Clarn) and month (base case: January 2011), based on fixed effects
logit regression (* denotes statistical significance at the <0.05 level)
Homepage-
Most Read-
Homepage-
Most Read-
Public affairs
Public Affairs
campaign
Campaign
Nacion
204.7*
211.6*
120.6*
287.2*
TN
38.8*
-5.7
22.3
-12.3
Norte
164.8*
Data Chaco
280.6*
374.3*
56.8*
181*
Litoral
-25.1*
-17.4*
-50*
-31.6*
Uno
-57.9*
-84.9*
-37.3*
-65.9*
Feb-11
20.6
49.9*
-25.5
46
Mar-11
41.6
111.1*
36
129.7*
Apr-11
33*
57*
60.4*
110.8*
May-11
24.3
31.5*
39.8*
83.9*
Jun-11
18.4
86.2*
59.9*
102.2*
Jul-11
58.5*
66.9*
236.4*
334.8*
Aug-11
62.3*
98.8*
177.1*
439.3*
Sep-11
-0.9
1.1
17.5
82.7*
Oct-11
40*
60.2*
160*
289.5*
Nov-11
1.6
34.2*
-93.7*
-95.9*
-7.4

Figure 3.9
Homepage of Clarn on October 24, 2011
Stories framed in green are about the campaign
99

Figure 3.10.
Top ten most viewed stories on Clarn on October 24, 2011
100

Figure 3.11.
Homepage of Clarn on August 15, 2011
101

Figure 3.12.
Top ten most viewed stories on Clarn on August 15, 2011
102

Figure 3.13.
Top ten most viewed stories on Litoral on August 15, 2011
103

Figure 3.14
Top ten most viewed stories on Litoral on October 24, 2011
104

Figure 3.15
Top ten most viewed stories on Data Chaco on August 15, 2011
105

Figure 3.16
Top ten most viewed stories on Data Chaco on October 24, 2011
106
Chapter 4:
Between the Spiral of Silence and the Spiral of Cynicism:
Unequal Distribution of Political Participation during the 2011 Campaign
107
108
In December 2010, almost a year before the presidential election, Agustn, a 24- year-old private
sector employee from Ciudad de Buenos Aires, was very enthusiastic about participating in
politics. I am about to join the ranks of La Cmpora (a Kirchnerist political group). I like many
things about the government, I detest many others, but I believe it is the best administration of
the last 50 years.256 However, that enthusiasm was short-lived. By April the following year, he
had abandoned the idea of actively participating in politics. "That lasted for a short time. I
approached the party, but - withdrew a few weeks later. They were not the party I was looking
for: I was looking for a space that allowed different points of view, and I found out they were not
like that at all. Apart from that, I don't have time to... One thing is to meet for an hour, an hour
and a half...but they get together, drink mate, start painting flags... I did not feel inclined to
stay.257 The two reasons Agustn gave not to participate in politics (absence of correspondence
between the party and political ideas, and lack of time) were repeated by many of the citizens
interviewed for this research. With some exceptions, most of the respondents did not participate
actively in politics, and they did not increase their engagement during the campaign.
This chapter examines three dimensions of participation: political voice (expression of
views on public issues, such as contacting officials, contacting media, or discussing politics),
political participation (activities aimed at influencing government action, such as voting or
attending an candidates rally), and civic participation (voluntary activities focused on problem
solving and helping others, which include active membership in a non-electoral group or
association).258 Civic and political participation and expression did not increase during the
campaign. Although citizens were, on the whole, more knowledgeable of politics, this did not
lead to higher levels of participation. Respondents who followed news on print, radio, and the
109
internet were more likely to participate, either in politics or in civic society, or by expressing
their views. The relationship between online news, political expression ad civic participation
suggests that online networks are not a distraction but rather a stepping stone to political
participation.
In the interviews, in addition to lack of time and other resources, respondents also cited
the perception that participation would not change anything, a notion that entails a reduced sense
of external efficacy. 259 The idea that discussing politics could cause fights or misrepresent the
speaker to other people also appeared as a reason not to express political views. Moreover, both
the surveys and the interviews suggest that those citizens that intended to vote for the winning
party were more likely to participate, while those who opposed it were more likely to reduce
their participation.
In this chapter I propose that civic and political engagement are constrained and
facilitated by structural factors, and the agents motivation and ability. In turn, motivation and
skills to acquire information and participate are distributed differentially across groups
depending on socioeconomic and educational status. The findings from this chapter contribute to
the understanding of two issues to citizen engagement: the spiral of silence 260 and avoidance of
politics, and the relationship between news media consumption, political expression and political
participation.
Media and participation
Building on the centrality of media for political processes, research has examined
whether access to the media and information technologies fosters information acquisition and
political participation. This stream of research has tended to see technology as factor that can
110
generate or fail to generate-social and political effects.261 Scholarship on this issue has fallen
into two camps. One camp of the research proposes that access to online information fosters
civic participation. 262 Dimitrova and colleagues analyze two surveys from Sweden and conclude
that use of digital media leads to increased political activity among the public at large. 263 Other
scholars propose that media and information technologies may promote participation in the
public sphere by allowing citizens to create content and join in online discussion. 264
The opposite camp contends that online access furthers inequalities in political
participation across social groups.265 Related studies indicate that internet information
consumption does not lead to higher levels of civic participation. 266 Scheufele and Nisbet
surveyed internet consumers in the United States and found that informational uses of the web
played a very limited role in promoting levels of efficacy, knowledge, and participation.267
Moreover, not all citizens may be equally interested in discussing political issues. 268
Thus, although the internet has been saluted by some authors as a revolutionary medium
allowing participation by ordinary citizens,269 research indicates that participation is limited by
the fact that the internet appears to widen, rather than close, information and participation
inequalities across socioeconomic groups. Factors such as level of education attained, gender,
and socioeconomic statures, as well as internal efficacy (beliefs about ones competence to
understand (...) politics270) and external efficacy (beliefs about the responsiveness of
governmental authorities (...) to citizens demands271) may also influence willingness to
participate in the public arena.
Participation in context
111
Several studies have examined differences in civic engagement across countries 272 and
across regions of the same countries. 273 However, there remains a scholarly debate on whether
social capital drives democratization, participation, and development 274 or socioeconomic
development and greater income quality help instill a political culture of skepticism and
accountability via the mechanism of reduced clientelism () which becomes prohibitively
expensive when votes must be bought not with a bag of food but with a public sector job or an
automatic washing machine.275 According to Cleary and Stokes, it is distrust and skepticism,
rather than social trust and social capital, which foster democratization. However, analysts who
have studied cross-regional differences in democratic quality have seldom examined the role of
media and election campaigns in promoting political expression and participation. By looking at
trust in the politicians and the media and engagement before and after the campaign in four
districts with varying levels of socioeconomic development, this chapter aims to provide a
window into the complex relationship between development, information-seeking and
participation.
Election campaigns have also been linked to increased levels of political
information, 276 and support for democratic values. 277 However, others studies suggest that news
consumption during elections may increase cynicism, apathy and disaffection from the political
system.278 However, there are few studies on whether electoral campaigns increase civic and
political participation. This is partly because most research on political participation is conducted
during election campaigns, and takes for granted that participation tends to increase during
elections. Although that might be true for activities such as voting and donating money, that is
112
not necessarily the case for activities involving political expression and civic participation such
as talking about politics, contacting a public official, or being part of an organization.
Political voice
In contrast with the level of political information, which, as chapter 3 shows, increased
from a period of routine political activity to the days before the Election, political voice activities
did not change significantly during the campaign at any of the locations and education levels
(Figure 4.1).279 However, political voice follows the predictable pattern of increasing according
to level of education: those respondents who had completed college participated, on average, of
almost double of the political expression activities of those who had not. Moreover, levels of
political expression also varied across locations: those in the districts with highest levels of
human development (Buenos Aires and Santa Fe) engaged in more political voice activities than
those in the less developed locations (Jos C. Paz and Resistencia), at all levels of education.
The first wave of the survey shows that sociodemographic characteristics were
significantly related to level of political expression, and explained 13% of the variance in
political voice. Respondents with less than a high school education, and from Jos C. Paz and
Resistencia were less likely to engage in political voice activities, even when controlling for
gender, age, and socioeconomic level (Table 4.1). All news media consumption (Model 2),
except accessing news on the cellphone and attention to television news, explained a further 5
percentage points of the variance in political voice activities. Respondents who had read print
newspapers, or accessed online news during the previous week participated in, respectively, a
third and a half more of political voice activities than the other participants. Political information
113
(Model 3) had a small but significant association, and explained two extra percentage points of
the variance in political expression.
Six months later, just before Election Day, attention to news media continued to be
positively associated with political expression activities, even when controlling for
sociodemographic characteristics, levels of political information, and expression activities at
wave 1, before the campaign had started (Table 4.2). That is, even among respondents who had
reported higher levels of political voice during wave 1, radio, print and online news were
significantly associated with expression just before Election Day. Trust in media, trust in
politicians, and external and internal efficacy variables were not significantly associated with
political expression activities (Model 5). Those with a lot of and some interest in the
campaign had engaged on average in more expression activities, when controlling for other
factors.
Civic participation
Civic participation includes activities such as participating in a sports, religious or artistic
organization, being a member of a union, being part of the PTA, and having collaborated with
people outside the family to solve common problems. It also increases according to level of
education, both before and during the campaign, and is also stronger in the more economically
developed districts (Santa Fe and Buenos Aires) than in less developed ones (Resistencia and
Jos C. Paz) (Figure 4.2). For instance, respondents who had completed college in Buenos Aires
and Santa Fe, engaged, on average, on two civic participation activities, compared to respondents
who had not completed high school in Resistencia and Jos C. Paz, which engaged, on average,
114
in less than half a participatory activity. Moreover, there are no significant differences between
civic participation before the campaign and civic participation just before the election. 280
Before the campaign started, respondents from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, and who had
completed a college education were more likely to engage in civic participation (Table 4.3).
Other factors, such as age, gender and socioeconomic status did not have a significant relation
with civic participation. All news media consumption practices (print, television, radio and
online) (Model 2) were significantly related to and explained 3 percent of the variance of
variations in civic participation . Finally, level of political knowledge also had a small but
significant association.
At the height of the campaign, the news media continued to be significantly related to
civic participation, although television news consumption had a negative rather than a positive
relationship. The relationship between media consumption and civic participation continued to
be significant even when controlling for interest in the campaign, vote choice, trust in media and
politicians, and internal and external efficacy. Predictably, civic participation in Wave 1 is
positively related to civic participation just before Election Day, and increases the explanatory
power of the model by 7 percentage points.
Political participation
Political participation, which encompasses activities such as being affiliated with a
political party, donating money to a party, volunteering for a campaign, signing a petition, or
participating in a rally or picket, did not follow the same pattern of expressive and civic
participation (Figure 4.3). It was higher in Resistencia than in the other three locations, and
although it increased with level of education in the more developed locations (Buenos Aires and
115
Santa Fe), there is no clear association between level of education and political participation in
the less economically developed districts (Resistencia and Jos C. Paz). Moreover, the
differences among groups with different education levels and across locations is not as
noticeable as the differences in expression and civic participation were. Political participation did
not increase at the height of the campaign, and in some cases, such as Buenos Aires and less
educated respondents in Resistencia, it decreased.
Before the campaign started, respondents from Santa Fe, Jose C. Paz and Resistencia, and
who had completed a college education, were more likely to engage in civic participation (Table
4.3). In Model 2, news media consumption practices were positively and significantly related to
civic participation, and educational attainment is no longer significant. Adding level of political
information (model 3), which was positively related to political participation, increased the
explanatory power by 3 percentage points.
At the height of the campaign, age, gender, level of education and socioeconomic status
were not significantly associated with political participation. However, respondents in Jos C.
Paz, Resistencia and Santa Fe were more likely to engage politically than respondents in Buenos
Aires. Media consumption practices explained a further 2 percentage points of the variance in
political participation (Model 2), only reading a print newspaper o accessing online news were
positively and significantly related. Level of political information and participation in wave 1
were also positively and significantly associated (models 3 and 4). Model 5 shows that interest in
the campaign was also positively related to political participation, as was the intention of voting
for the incumbent (Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner), who would later go on to win the election.
Although the coefficients are not significant, it is interesting that internal efficacy and trust in the
116
media are positive, while trust in politicians is negative. Those who place trust in politicians are
less likely to participate.
Participation indicators were positively and highly correlated in the two waves of the
survey. The correlation between expression and political participation was .37 (p < 0.000) in the
first wave and .36 (p < 0.000) right before the election (Table 4.7). The correlation between civic
participation and political expression was .40 (p < 0.000) and (p < 0.000).41, respectively. The
least correlated indices were political and civic participation: .25 in wave 1 and .19 in wave 2,
which still had positive and significant correlations.
These results show that the three components of citizen engagement (expression, civic
participation, political participation) were relatively stable when comparing sixth months prior to
the election to the height of the campaign. This finding runs against the literature suggesting the
three outcomes would increase as Election Day approaches. Moreover, although expressive and
civic participation follow the pattern described by most of the literature (positively associated
with individual level of education and local level of development), political participation is
highest in Resistencia, the least developed of the districts examined. Although more educated
respondents are more active in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, that is not the case in Resistencia and
Jos C. Paz. Interviews with citizens from the four locations suggest that the certainty of the
outcome decreased interest and engagement on the 2011 presidential campaign. In Buenos Aires,
disenchantment with the expect outcome may have discouraged more expression and
participation. Finally, in the less economically developed districts, government employment and
subsidies might be related to higher levels of political participation among the respondents with
lower educational attainment.
117
Making sense of participation

Analysis of the interviews confirms that attention to news, and civic and political
participation tend to be linked: respondents who followed news, were more likely to articulate
their opinions, and to participate in politics and/or in civic activities. Moreover, willingness to
exercise their political voice and to participate was not homogeneously distributed across the
citizens of the four locations examined.
There were three main reasons not to express political opinions. All of them were related
to affective states and to perceptions of the socio-political realities: assessment of own
ignorance; discomfort or uneasiness, and a sense that exercising political voice would not change
the status quo. The first one was revealed as the belief of having nothing to say, due to feelings
of ignorance and inadequacy regarding politics, i./e., diminished internal political efficacy. This
motive was cited quite often by younger and female respondents. For instance, Camila, a 21year-old college student from Resistencia, explained if I can avoid talking about politics I do
itMaybe because I do not know much about politics, I prefer not to express an opinion,
because I might embarrass myself.281 Ana, who cleaned houses for a living in Santa Few, linked
her unwillingness to talk to lack of attention to media because I do not watch so much
television, I am not well-informed, what am I going to talk about?282 Maximiliano, a 30-yearold small-business owner from Resistencia, also declined to talk due to feelings of inadequacy I
do not understand (politics) and I should not speak about what I ignore.283
The second reason not to express political opinions was uneasiness. This uneasiness
ranged from avoiding discomfort regarding differences with friends, families and co-workers to
outright fear of consequences. Seeking to avoid confrontation was a reason given by
118
interviewees in the four locations studied. Pablo, a retired teacher in Jos C. Paz, explained that
in the past yearsthe atmosphere (had become) very tense. He went on to say that you meet
with people you have known your whole life and you dont know what to say in a get-together
because you are afraid of stirring things up, or having someone react the wrong way, and you
end up avoiding politics. In a birthday party Ive spoken during two hours about kittens and
puppies, it was a world record.284 For other interviewees, face-offs could become family feuds.
Mariana, an assistant from Buenos Aires, described her latest family meeting: I dont
participate, I just look because they become very aggressive, because my grandmother hates
(president) Cristina (Fernandez de Kirchner), my Mom adores her, and my brother seeks to
mediate. But my grandmother sometimes says very aggressive stuff, my mom answers back with
more aggression, and we almost cut short Mothers Day celebration.285
Fear, including being afraid of bodily harm, was cited only by citizens in Jos C. Paz.
Gonzalo, a salesman, said I do not speak about politics because 85% of people, in Jos C. Paz,
live off politics. Thus I dont speak about politics () it is a hegemony. Maru said shed rather
not speak up about politics because she was afraid of something happening to her: This girl, she
had a child, she went on television to complain that she had not been given social housing. The
president saw it and she was given a house, but then Ishiis (the mayor) people came to bully her
(la patotearon).286 Gastn, a small-business owner, exaggerated for effect Imagine with my
political ideology (he was against Peronism), I meddle in Jos C. Paz, afterwards I get a bomb at
home.287
Yet others, such as Norma, a 48-year-old community organizer from Resistencia, relished
the opportunity to discuss politics, I like to talk things over. Talking and listening with respect
119
() all my life I have tried to convince people. 288 Federico, a 30-year-old civil servant from
Buenos Aires, followed news closely and enjoyed discussing issues with friends and family. He
said, I give Kirchner credit for having brought to the dinner table subjects that were not talked
about before. Nowadays, everybody takes a stance on everything.289 Maite, a lawyer also from
Buenos Aires, did not believe that Kirchnerism or polarization had made talking about politics
more difficult: between ordinary people who are interested in politics, it has always been like
that, politics is like River-Boca,290 she said, referring to the rivalry between the two biggest
soccer teams in Argentina.
Respondents also appeared to differentiate venues for political discussion. Most of the
respondents who used Facebook perceived it as space for socialization with friends and family,
not as an arena for political opinions. Mximo, a public relations agent from Santa Fe, explained
that while he used Twitter for politics, on Facebook, he would not like to ruin other peoples
visualsMy parents and siblings are far away, I have them on Facebook and they use it to see
pictures of my sonif I start posting information about politics they would not understand what
I was talking about.291 Agustn, a private-sector employee from Buenos Aires, used Twitter to
send messages to political figures and journalists, but refrained from posting about politics on
Facebook because he knew his coworkers, who did not share his political ideology, could see it,
and it would not look good.292 Appearances were also important for Ignacio, a public relations
consultant also from Buenos Aires: I made many political posts on Facebook but I deleted
thembecause I have a kirchnerist friend, who is a high-ranking official, and I needed to ask
him for something, [so] it was not the time to keep insulting this bitch (the president).293
120
The campaign did not change the propensity to express political views. Respondents who
usually discussed politics kept on with that practice, and described it as regular rather than out of
the ordinary. Christian, the political activist who had lost the primaries in Jos C. Paz, answered
that he talked about politics all the time!294 Norma, the community organizer from Resistencia,
commented I usually talk (about politics) with my daughter, because she is the only one who
pays attention to me, everybody else is tired. I always talk about that.295 Jos, a college student
from Buenos Aires, said he talked about politics with everybody, friends, family, co-workers
and linked this practice to his family. In a family lunch, you spend two minutes talking about
politics and already one of us is banging the table. I remember that when I was a kid it always
happened.296
Rather than fear of exposure or feelings of inadequacy, the main motive given not to call
the media, or write letters to newspapers, was that these actions took too much work and would
not solve anything. In some cases, this was a conjecture. Maira, a 19-year-old college student
from Resistencia said: for me it is a waste of time, because newspapers here are very close to
the government, you write a letter criticizing the government and they would not publish it, why
waste my time?297 Carlos, a lawyer from Santa Fe, got angry when journalists got wrong basic
points about legal issues and was about to write an email to correct them several times, but
decided against it because nothing would change.298 In other cases, the ideas were based on
experience. Maximiliano, also from Resistencia, recalled he had once sent a letter to the local
newspaper, Norte, about a free concert by Calle 13 organized by the government in Resistencia.
People were almost crushed, there were no portable toilets, windows were broken, it was a
disaster. (...) I sent the message twice and asked for a confirmation of reception but I never
121
received an answer.299 Pablo, from Jos C. Paz, had written a letter to the newspapers a long
time ago and it had not been published, so he thought it was no use to do it again. 300
Lack of external efficacy also discouraged citizens from contacting public officials.
Marta, a public school teacher from Jose C. Paz, said she had never seen an official, I do not
need them, I am a blackboard-and-chalk worker, I got used to working with that there isyou go
to ask for something, you might get it, you might not.301 Marcela, a psychologist from Santa Fe,
explained that she would like to talk to an official to look for a job in the public sector, but,
because she did not have any contacts, the official would send (her) back (me va a sacar
carpiendo).302 Silvia, a school counselor from Jos C. Paz, described how she called every two
weeks to the mayors office to have a speed bump installed on her corner, where there had been
an accident. I began calling five months ago and I am still waiting for an answer. 303
Voting between ages 18 and 70 is compulsory in Argentina. Thus it is not surprising that
many interviewees referred to voting as their main political participation activity. Virginia, a 37year-old secretary from Santa Fe, said she always voted because if you dont get involved in
government, then you cannot complain if things go wrong.304 Olga, a librarian from Jos C. Paz
declared I am a fan of elections and of democratic processes; voting for me is like attending a
party. I always vote for the losers, but I dont care.305 One of the respondents in Resistencia,
Lorena, had a premature baby just before the elections, and she had asked the doctors if she
could leave the hospital for an hour to get to the ballots: obviously my daughter comes first. But
if they give me a little time I want to vote because I want the incumbent (Fernndez de Kirchner)
to win again.306
122
Consistent with the survey results, enthusiasm for participation waned among some of the
participants in Buenos Aires: those who were opposed to the incumbent. Maite, a lawyer, a year
before the election that she always voted, that she would vote even if it were not
compulsory.307 However, right before the election, she asserted yes, I am going to vote.
Because it is compulsory, If it were not compulsory I dont know whether I would vote.308
Ignacio, a public relations consultant, exhibited an even more drastic change. In October 2010,
he said Ive voted every time we could. () I love democracy and I love voting, I wouldnt
miss it. I go with Bauti (his son); I love seeing people on the streets.309 A year later, he was not
so certain: I dont know if I am going to voteyou have to vote, because if not you can be
fined.310
Another group of participants saw voting as a burden. Cynthia, an architect from Buenos
Aires, said she only voted because it was compulsory.311 Rodolfo, a public-sector employee
from Santa Fe explained I dont like voting. It is an inconvenience, having to go there, wait in
line. That annoys me, but it is necessary.312 Others were unenthusiastic about voting because
they felt their participation would not change anything. Mariana, the assistant from Buenos
Aires, said I sometimes think it is useless, it is a lie (...) but part of me hopes that it is not like
that, and that is why I keep on voting () because it is as if we are living completely
unprotected, in a situation of social submission to a group of people that have somehow
positioned themselves as a mobster gang.313 A minority declined to vote at all. Omar, a smallbusiness owner from Resistencia said if I can vote I do it and if I cant I dont. I might go
fishing, sometimes I go fishing, I am not interested.314 Eduardo, a 54-year old plumber from
123
Santa Fe, shared both the intent not to vote and the alternative activity one vote, my vote, wont
change anything. Id rather be on the island, fishing, it is a better use of my time.315
Very few of the respondents engaged in political activities beyond voting, which
coincides with the findings from the survey. There were two main reasons for this. One was time
and other practical issues, and the other one was disenchantment with politics, and failure to find
a political group that represented them. Regarding practical issues, Gastn, a small-business
owner from Jos C. Paz, said that he didnt attend political rallies because they are organized at
a time of the day in which it is impossible for people like you or me to go. () I am working at 1
PM, I dont have time to go to a political rally. 316 Pablo, another small-business owner from
Buenos Aires, also lacked time for political participation.317 Debi, a make-up artist from Santa
Fe, said she had been invited to rallies in her neighborhood, but she had declined to go because
she had to take care of her son: I cant go with the baby. You dont know whether there will be
any problems, and it is dangerous to go with the baby. 318 A related reason not to go to rallies
was fear. Marta, a public-school teacher from Jos C. Paz said she had never gone to a political
meeting because she did not like crowds; I am afraid that my cell phone will be stolen, or that
two groups will start a fight with me in the middle.319
Regarding affective motives not to participate in politics, some participants claimed to be
disenchanted with politics and politicians. Cynthia, the architect from Buenos Aires, recalled that
she used to participate when she was young, but that she finished high school in 1976, the year
the military dictatorship began in Argentina I have many friends and classmates that were
murderedfear, or distrust and fear, made up a situation in which politics is a very sensitive
topic for me.320 Silvia, the school counselor from Jos C. Paz, dated her disenchantment a few
124
years later, to the administration of Ral Alfonsn, the first democratic president of Argentina
after this dictatorship. I had expectations, the changes he proposed were good, but then little
was done and I was disappointed. It was like a disappointing love affair 321. Rodolfo, in turn was
disenchanted by his participation in politics in a soccer club, Unin: I dont like political
activity. I did it once when there were elections in Unin, and I didnt like it. You have to go
around convincing people, and other small stuff. 322 Camila, a college student from Resistencia,
had never participated in politics but she did not believe her engagement could change anything
I dont like anything related to politics () because of what I see, because of what happens
every year. If those in power cared so much, we wouldnt see as many poor people as we do.323
Civic participation did not evoke the same negative feelings as political participation did
in most of the respondents. Although few of them participated, most expressed the wish to do
more for their community or causes they were interested in. Civic participation was not evenly
distributed across locations, which mirrors findings from the survey. Respondents in Buenos
Aires, Santa Fe, and to a lower extent, Resistencia, were more likely to engage civically than
those in Jos C. Paz. Even interviewees who had expressed distrust of politics got together to
solve neighborhood issues. For instance, Eduardo, the plumber from Santa Fe who did not want
to vote, said he lived in a neighborhood where they got together to discuss issues related to
pavement, water tubes, and even protested when the mayors office did not solve their
problems. 324 Maite, the lawyer from Buenos Aires, was part of a neighborhood association,
which discussed safety, sidewalks, and trees. They got together because the city administration
was not doing its job.325
125
Parents of small children tended to be involved, either formally through the PTA or
informally with their kids school. Debi describes how she collaborated with hers sons
kindergarten. The kindergarten has a sewing box, so they bring me old clothes and we ()
make clothes for the kids, they are distributed among them. Last week we made a lot of bags so
they could carry their school supplies.326 Omar, the small-business owner from Resistencia, said
the teachers know I have a small print shop, and they ask me for banners or notices, and I make
them. I cooperate, but I am not part of the committee or anything. 327 Pablo, from Buenos Aires,
had no kids of his own but had started to offer business workshops to young adults with
behavioral and neurological issues. A friend asked me to do it () I thought I would not have
time, but now I am committed and every Friday at half past five I am there.328 A few months
later, he characterized his participation as a catharsis of solidarity.329
Although some of the respondents were unionized, some had had bad experiences with
the union and had withdrawn. Silvia, felt they were taking my money and they were not doing
anything for me.330 However, Mariana recalled the union she had had in her previous job as a
telemarketer: it was a young union, people were all very young, and thanks to the unions
intervention we got a lot of things.331 Graciana, who clerked in the federal courts of Resistencia,
said I dont pay a lot of attention to the union, but I think it is an important figure() In fact, I
believe our union fought for many benefits and I think they got them. 332
Respondents from Jos C. Paz or with fewer years of formal education appeared to
participate less in civic activities. They were less likely to be members of civil society
organizations, and to answer affirmatively whether they had collaborated with people outside of
their immediate family. For instance, Maru, who lived in a poor neighborhood in Jos C. Paz
126
asked: why would I have to do anything if there are many of us (in the neighborhood)? I just go
along like everybody else does.333 Ana, a cleaning lady from Santa Fe, complained that
nobody does anything in the neighborhood () It would be nice if they did, but they dont.334
Yamila, who was studying to become a teacher in Jos C. Paz, said she would like to participate
in an animal rights society, but I dont know if that can be done.335 She was interested in the
welfare of animals, but she lacked the social capital to turn that interest into an organized
activity. Olga, a librarian also from Jos C. Paz, cared for stray animals: If there is any issue
with stray animals, we have her neutered, and everybody contributes a little, if there is a dog, we
neuter and feed her. This is community activity that will never be featured on the newspaper or
TV but that goes on every day.336
Examining the respondents with the highest degrees of participation confirms the
correlation between the various types of engagement found in the survey results. The more
engaged participants tended to exercise their political voice and be active in both civic and
political activities. Carlos, who was a lawyer in Santa Fe, participated as an election overseer for
his party (Peronism), was active in his union at work, and enjoyed talking about politics. He also
followed news closely online and offline. Norma, a community organizer in Resistencia, worked
bringing people to voting places on Election Day, was active in helping members of her
community to get food stamps and social subsidies, and talked so much about politics that only
her daughter paid any attention to her. Christian, who came in fifth in the primaries of Jos C.
Paz, attended rallies, mailed letters to public officials, and hoped to, one day, help lead Jos C.
Paz.337 However, he did not trust the media, and did not think they were an essential component
of his engagement. Agustn followed the news closely, discussed politics with friends and
127
family, and tried joining a political organization. But Carlos, Norma, Christian, and Agustn are
outliers. Most of the respondents had very low levels of participation. The contribution made by
media and communication technologies was positive, but small. Education and interest also
played a part. The next section seeks to bring together the complex relationships that lie between
sociodemographic factors, interest, attention to news, and participation.
Concluding remarks
This chapter has examined the relationship between civic and political engagement, and
exercise of public voice, and the evolution of the political environment before and during the
2011 presidential campaign in Argentina. The two waves of the survey indicate, first, that levels
of participation were low, and unevenly distributed across locations and socio-economic groups:
college graduates in Buenos Aires doubled the participation levels by high school drop outs in
the poorer districts. Moreover, there was a small but significant relationship between news media
consumption and levels of expression and participation. News media consumption, particularly
print, radio, and online news, was positively and significantly related to modest increases in both
waves of the survey. This suggests these three media play a positive role before and during the
campaign, and might help reduce the participation divide. However, the findings do not allow us
to rule out the probability that those who were already more interested in public affairs in general
and the election in particular turned to the news media to obtain more information. The lack of a
significant correlation between television and public engagement activities gives some credence
to the characterizations of television as a source of cynicism338 and a destroyer of social
capital. 339 The lack of correlation between access to information on a cell phone and political
expression and participation challenges the characterization of cell phone technology as a bridge
128
across the digital divide340 and suggests cell phone access to the internet may not foster effective
use of the technology, at least not for political expression and participation.341
The in-depth interviews show that both practical and affective factors explained
reluctance to express political ideas and participate actively. Regarding the material conditions of
participation, more educated and higher-status respondents tended to engage more actively with
both their community and the polity. Lack of time and other resources, such as information and
social connections were often cited by women and less educated respondents as reasons not to
participate. As Rosenstone and Hansen explain, although the personal costs and benefits of
political participation342 play a large role in determining whether citizens choose to participate,
political and social factors also influence participation. Most citizens are not ready to make the
cognitive and affective efforts needed to participate, much less so when they perceive that the
election results are inevitable. Their unwillingness to engage coincides with the economic model
of democracy proposed by Downs: 343 as the probability of influencing in the election decreases,
so does intention to vote. In the poorest districts, party and government activities appear to
equalize participation across educational and socio-economic strata. However, accounts of
violence by some interviewees challenge the notion that all political participation is constructive
per se.
Regarding affective and cognitive factors for engagement, this chapter found that many
respondents avoid both expressing their opinion and participating due to a sense of inadequacy
and fear of facing discord from family, friends, or co-workers at the ideas expressed, which
provides support to the avoidance of politics theory proposed by Eliasoph344 and Mutzs findings
that individuals in heterogeneous networks refrain from overt political activity. 345 Reluctance to
129
discuss political issues online echoes findings by Hampton and colleagues about Americans
being less likely to discuss the Snowden-NSA story on online networks than in person. 346 In
contrast, intending to vote the winner of the election was related to increased participation, which
confers further support for the spiral of silence theory.347 Perceiving support for the preferred
candidate may increase both willingness to participate and willingness to discuss politics, which
underscores the importance of perceptions as determinants of political (in)action, and provides
evidence of a bandwagon effect in electoral campaigns. 348 Compulsory primaries in which
candidates run unopposed might not only reduce interest in the campaign and election results,
but they might also discourage participation and expression among all voters, except those who
voting for the winning candidate.
The next chapter puts together the pieces of the information and participation puzzle in
Argentina (sociodemographic characteristics, news coverage, attention to news media, levels of
information and participation), to reveal an accurate portrait and interpretation of engagement
with public affairs during a presidential campaign.
130
Figure 4.1
Average number of political voice activities engaged in during the previous year
(out of 7 possible ones: having talked about politics, contacted a public official, written a letter
to the newspaper,
called a television or radio show, commented on an online news site or
blog, or posted something about politics on Facebook or twitter, by location and education level,
before the campaign (April 2011, N=1600) and at the height of the campaign (October 2011,
N=1023)
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
Buenos Aires
Santa Fe
April
Jos C Paz
October
Resistencia
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
131
Table 4.1
level) in April 2011 (robust)
N=1023
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
AGE
0.00
0.00
-0.01
Male
0.08
0.11
0.11
Medium SES
0.17
0.12
0.15
Low SES
-0.13
-0.07
-0.03
Less Than High
-0.38*
-0.24*
-0.19*
Some college
-0.27
-0.18
-0.17
Santa Fe
-0.07
-0.05
-0.03
Jos C. Paz
-0.58*
-0.46*
-0.40*
Resistencia
-0.09
-0.12
-0.12
Print newspaper
0.23*
0.23*
TV news
0.00
-0.02
Radio news
0.23*
0.19*
Online News
0.46*
0.43*
Cell Phone news
-0.07
-0.08
School
R1
0.12*
.13
.18
.20
132
Table 4.2
consumption, level of political information, expression activities in Wave 1, voting for the
2011 (robust)
N=1023
Model 1
AGE
0.00
Male
0.08
Medium SES
0.17
Low SES
-0.13
-0.38*
Some college
-0.27*
Santa Fe
-0.07
Jos C. Paz
-0.58*
Resistencia
-0.09
Print newspaper
TV news
Radio news
Online News
Cell Phone news
Expression 1
Votes for incumbent
a little interest in the campaign
some interest in the campaign
a lot of interest in the campaign
Trust in the media
Trust in politicians
Internal Efficacy
External efficacy
R2
0.12
Model 2
0.00
0.11
0.12
-0.07
-0.24*
-0.18
-0.05
-0.46*
-0.12
0.23*
0.00
0.23*
0.46*
-0.07
Model 3
-0.01
0.11
0.15
-0.03
-0.19
-0.17
-0.03
-0.40*
-0.12
0.23*
-0.02
0.19*
0.43*
-0.08
0.12*
Model 4
0.00
0.12*
0.14
0.06
-0.07
-0.13
0.02
-0.23*
-0.02
0.19*
-0.02
0.17*
0.38*
-0.11
0.12*
0.27*
0.17
0.19
0.27
Model 5
-0.01
0.13*
0.12
0.05
-0.06
-0.11
0.02
-0.29*
0.05
0.18*
0.03
0.15*
0.37*
-0.10
0.09*
0.26*
-0.01
0.13
0.29*
0.31*
0.05
0.00
0.05
0.00
0.3
133
Figure 4.2
Average number of civic participation activities engaged in
(out of nine possible ones: participating in an sports, religious, artistic, neighborhood, social or
non-government organization, being a member of a union or professional organization, being
part of the PTA, and having collaborated with people outside the family to solve common
problems), by location and education level, , before the campaign (April 2011, N=1600) and at
the height of the campaign (October 2011, N=1023).
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
Buenos Aires
Santa Fe
April
Jos C Paz
October
Resistencia
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
134
Table 4.3
N=1600
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
AGE
0.00
0.00
0.00
Male
-0.01
-0.05
-0.07
Medium SES
-0.06
0.00
0.03
Low SES
-0.32
-0.14
-0.09
-0.62*
-0.50*
-0.46*
Some college
-0.48*
-0.44*
-0.42*
0.15
0.13
0.25
Jos C. Paz
-0.57*
-0.46*
-0.34
Resistencia
-0.20*
-0.08
0.02
Print newspaper
0.17*
0.16*
TV news
0.18*
0.17
Radio news
0.17*
0.14*
Online News
0.37*
0.35*
Cell Phone news
0.01
0.00
Santa Fe
R2
0.08*
0.13
0.16
0.17
135
Table 4.4
2011 (robust)
N=1023
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
AGE
Male
Medium SES
Low SES
0.00
-0.03
0.07
-0.25
-0.55*
0.00
0.00
0.09
-0.18
-0.44*
0.00
0.00
0.10
-0.16
-0.42*
0.00
0.00
0.02
-0.16
-0.24
0.00
0.02
-0.01
-0.17
-0.22
Some college
Santa Fe
Jos C. Paz
-0.43*
0.17
-0.85*
-0.37*
0.18
-0.72*
-0.36*
0.19
-0.69*
-0.21
0.15
-0.50*
-0.18
0.15
-0.55*
Resistencia
Print newspaper
TV news
Radio news
Online News
-0.70*
-0.82*
0.18*
-0.34*
0.22*
0.34*
-0.81*
0.18*
-0.35*
0.20*
0.32*
-0.74*
0.18*
-0.39*
0.20*
0.28*
-0.66*
0.17*
-0.32
0.16*
0.28*
-0.12
-0.12
0.05
-0.13
0.04
0.30*
0.22
0.22
0.29
-0.12
0.01*
0.29*
-0.06
0.06
0.41*
0.32*
0.05
-0.01
0.04
0.02
0.32
Cell Phone news

Civic participation 1
Votes for incumbent
Trust in the media
Internal Efficacy
External efficacy
R2
0.19
136
Figure 4.3
Average number of political participation activities engaged in
(out of 8 possible ones: being affiliated to a political party, having voted in the previous
election, donated money to a party, volunteered for a campaign, used a pin, t-shirt or sign for a
candidate, having signed a petition, having participated in a rally or picket), by location and
education level, before the campaign (April 2011, N=1600) and at the height of the campaign
(October 2011, N=1023)
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
Buenos Aires
Santa Fe
April
Jos C Paz
October
Resistencia
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
Completed college
some college
less than HS
137
Table 4.5
N=1600
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
AGE
0.00
0.00
0.00
Male
-0.06
-0.10
-0.13*
Medium SES
0.08
0.12
0.16
Low SES
-0.11
0.00
0.10
-0.25*
-0.17
-0.07
Some college
-0.14
-0.11
-0.07
Santa Fe
0.07
0.05
0.30*
Jos C. Paz
0.11
0.19*
0.44*
Resistencia
0.63*
0.72*
0.90*
Print newspaper
0.16*
0.13*
TV news
0.17*
0.15*
Radio news
0.20*
0.16*
Online News
0.15*
0.11
Cell Phone news
0.01
-0.01
R2
0.17*
0.06
0.09
0.12
138
Table 4.6
2011 (robust)
N=1023
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
AGE
Male
Medium SES
Low SES
0.00
0.00
0.17
0.00
-0.23*
0.00
0.02
0.18
0.06
-0.17
0.00
0.03
0.21
0.10
-0.12
0.00
0.02
0.16
0.09
-0.04
0.00
0.02
0.14
0.07
-0.05
Some college
Santa Fe
Jos C. Paz
-0.16
0.24*
0.12
-0.12
0.25*
0.20*
-0.10
0.27*
0.26*
-0.08
0.24*
0.21*
-0.07
0.25*
0.12
Resistencia
Print newspaper
TV news
Radio news
Online News
0.58*
0.58*
0.17*
-0.11
-0.04
0.24*
0.59*
0.17*
-0.14
-0.09
0.20*
0.36*
0.10
-0.21*
-0.05
0.15*
0.40*
0.09
-0.14
-0.08
0.14*
0.04
0.03
0.13*
-0.04
0.10*
0.34*
0.9
0.11
0.26
-0.02
0.07*
0.33*
0.14*
0.07
0.30*
0.31*
0.05
-0.03
0.04
0.00
0.29
Cell Phone news

Political participation 1
Votes for incumbent
Trust in the media
Internal Efficacy
External efficacy
R2
0.7
139
Table 4. 7
Correlation between different indices of participation, in wave 1 (April 2011) and 2 (October
2011)
Voice 1
Pol
Civic
participation 1
participation
Voice 2
Pol
participation 2
1
Voice 1
Pol participation 1
0.3672
0.4044
0.2465
Voice 2
0.4102
0.2051
0.2512
Pol participation 2
0.2233
0.4506
0.14
0.3595
0.3313
0.0829
0.4104
0.3479
0.1901
Chapter 5:
Information, Participation and Citizenship
140
141
I began this dissertation by introducing contending views on the relationship between

democracy and development and access of media and information technologies. While policy
makers and some scholars have proposed that access promotes democratization and reduces
inequalities, the opposite view argues that electronic media in general and online technologies in
particular are detrimental to democratic development. However, as the research presented here
has shown, the story is slightly more complicated.
First, the meaning of access to media and information technologies should be specified.
Not all connections were created equal: while there appear to be practically no differences
regarding watching newscasts between having access to cable or broadcast television, having
online access at home or at work results in different uses of media and information technologies
than having a cellphone or cybercaf connection. Those with a home connection were more
likely to follow the news online, and accessing news online was more likely to be associated
with an increase in the levels of political information and engagement.
Second, the purported beneficial or harmful consequences should be conceptualized and
measured. While access to news has some modest but significant associations to levels of
information and political expression and participation, the effects vary by type of access. Print,
radio and online news appear to be more beneficial, while getting news on the television or cell
phone have negative or no significant relationships.
Finally, access, use and information acquisition and participation should be understood in
its social, political and geographic context. Even when controlling for levels of education and
socioeconomic status, citizens at more developed districts, such as the city of Buenos Aires, and,
to a lesser extent, Santa Fe, had higher level of connectivity, attention to news and information
142
and political expression levels. Conversely, in the poorer districts (Jos C. Paz and Resistencia)
showed higher levels of political participation, which suggests that practices such as attending
rallies or volunteering for campaigns are linked to face-to-face, rather than mediated,
interpersonal dynamics.
These findings suggest that both blanket recommendations to expand media access as
well as dire warnings about the potentially noxious consequences of media and information
technologies fail to account for the myriad ways in which individual and social characteristics
influence the uptake and use of various media. In turn, technological affordances interact with
individual, social and political phenomena in shaping both the ways in which media and
information technologies are used as well as the consequences of those practices of use. At a
time in which governments, NGOs, and to a lesser extent, private companies are devoting money
and time to bridge the digital divide, these findings are crucial to understand what interventions
are most effective to avoid both wasting resources and deepening inequalities. Almost ten years
ago Di Maggio and colleagues wrote The pressing question now is less `who can find a network
connection from which to log on? than `what are people doing, and what are they able to do,
when they go online.349 However, as this dissertation shows, what people are doing, and what
they are able to do when they go online, is inextricable linked to the kind of connection they can
find from which to log on.
In the remainder of this chapter I address these and other lessons learned about the
relationship between technology, information and participation, first by reviewing the research
presented in this dissertation and then reflecting on what the findings might mean for the
143
interplay between media, democracy and society, and the steps that might be taken to reduce
inequality and foster democratic participation.
What we know now about media access, information and participation
This dissertation makes contributions to four theoretical fields in the study of media,
technology and society: the digital divide, 350 monitorial citizenship, 351 the knowledge gap,352 and
the spiral of silence. 353
Regarding the digital divide, evidence from chapter 2 indicates that differences in access
to media mirror social inequalities. People with higher levels of education, higher socioeconomic
status, and who lived in the capital of the country were more likely to have internet access at
home and at work than other respondents. For instance, people in the lower socio-economic
stratum had on average 30 percentage points fewer of internet connectivity than those in the
middle and higher classes in each of the four locations. While overall access levels varied, the
30-point-gap between socioeconomic strata remained fairly stable. Furthermore, alternative types
of access, such as at cybercafs or through the cell phone, were also more accessible to younger,
better educated respondents, in the more economically developed districts. As many authors have
noted, the reproduction of privilege or cumulative advantage, whereby the rich get richer, 354 is
carried on to activities performed online.355 Those with access at home to media and information
technologies were more likely to use it for accessing news, as the constant availability of both
the device and the connection precluded respondents from worrying about time and money spent.
Practices of use are not only related to availability: respondents with access to internet on
their cellphones were not more likely to get their news online than those without smartphones.
As Walton and Donner indicate, going online on a computer supports more resource-intensive
144
goals (storage space, time, bandwidth) and stable media production, 356 or what some authors
define as capital-enhancing activities357 while smartphone access supports time-sensitive
goals, various forms of inter-personal communication, and low-bandwidth media use.358 The
findings presented in chapters 3 and 4 about the lack of association between mobile internet use
and information acquisition, political expression and participation provide further support to the
need to differentiate between different types of access. Although some authors have argued that
as internet technology become pervasive and cheap controversies about the digital divide will
fade away,359, the findings presented in these dissertation suggest that the concept should be
retained and refined. While several scholars have indicated that social inequalities and skills
might influence the effectiveness in the use of media and information technologies, 360, access,
including type, cost, and availability of the connection should be taken into account both when
examining technological inequalities and when analyzing the association between use of media
and information technologies and other social phenomena, such as information acquisition and
participation.
Information acquisition may also vary in accordance to the political context, as important
events such as elections or political crises direct normally inattentive people towards public
affairs. According to this model, news audiences behave as monitorial citizens, 361 paying more
attention civic issues during times of heightened political activity. 362 However, the evidence
presented in chapter 2 shows that levels of news consumption remained constant when
comparing the responses six months before the election and just before Election Day, across
different media platforms. Interviews with citizens indicate that the predictability of the electoral
outcome, due to the result of presidential primaries held two months prior to the general election
145
in which all parties fielded unopposed candidates, limited interest in and attention to the
campaign. Thus, monitorial citizenship appears not to be exclusively dependent on the amount or
the quality of public-affairs information available to the audience, as the debate between the full
information and the burglar alarm standard for news suggests.363 Rather, it appears to be a
function of both the effort needed to obtain information and its perceived usefulness for voters.
The analysis of the association between levels of political information and news media
consumption practices presented in chapter 3 allows this presentation to qualify the main
principle of the knowledge gap theory, which proposes that those with more formal instruction
benefit more in terms of political knowledge than their less educated peers. 364 Before the
campaign, news media consumption was associated with higher levels of information among the
more educated respondents. However, this association was reversed days before the election,
during which media consumers with fewer years of education obtained more gains from
following the news, even when controlling for level of information before the campaign. These
findings suggest that the knowledge gap model does not hold at all times. During periods of high
volume of information, middle-attention news consumers increase their political awareness365
and catch up with more attentive citizens, due to both feelings of civic duty and self-preservation
motives. 366
Levels of print, radio, and online news consumption were moderately related to political
expression and participation, as shows the analysis presented in chapter 4. However, access to
television news was either not correlated to, or negatively associated with, participation, which
supports characterizations of television as harmful to political engagement 367 and social
capital. 368 Engagement did not increase significantly from before the campaign to the height of
146
the electoral cycle, and in some cases it even decreased. Voting for the incumbent, who was
almost certain to win the presidential election, was positively related to political expression and
participation.
The interviews confirm that participation demands cognitive and material efforts that
most citizens are not ready to make. This rationale is bolstered by the perception that the election
results were easily predictable by the primary results. These findings match the economic model
of democracy proposed by Downs: 369 as the probability of influencing in the election decreases,
so does willingness to participate. Respondents who were not voting for the incumbent were less
likely to express their opinion, which provides further support for the spiral of silence theory. But
reluctance to engage was not reduced exclusively to expressive activities: opposition voters were
less likely to participate in political activities such as volunteering or going to a rally. The spiral
of silence need to be related solely to political talk, but could also be figurative, linked to
decreased political participation. Moreover, it could result not only of polls, and perceptions of
public opinion, as Noelle-Neumann proposes, 370 but also from the predictability of election
results. Predictable results due to primary elections in which candidates from all parties ran
unopposed or safe seats might signal that individual or collective actions cannot change the
course of the campaign, and thus reduce information acquisition, political expression and civic
engagement.
This dissertation also makes two methodological contributions to the study of the
interplay between media, technology and society. First, it indicates that the combination of
various quantitative and qualitative methods a panel survey, content analysis, and in-depth
interviews- allows us to shed light on the connection between the social and political context and
147
the individual abilities and motivations to access news, acquire information and participate in
politics. Relying on the survey only would have allowed us to note the association between
media consumption, knowledge and engagement, but it did not make possible to infer the reasons
for those correlations. For example, the apparent increase in levels of information did not match
the stability in news consumption from one wave of the survey to the next. The content analysis
measured levels of coverage of and attention to public affairs and campaign news throughout the
year prior to the election in news outlets from three of the districts examined suggested that
interest in the election had peaked right before the primary election. Interviews confirmed that
most respondents were more focused on the primary than on the general election. The
predictability of the presidential contest discouraged of the respondents from increasing their
news consumption before Election Day, and deterred those not voting for the incumbent from
engaging more deeply with the political process.
Second, the research design employed in this dissertation, a longitudinal study in four
districts with varying levels of development and connectivity, highlights the relevance of
studying various contexts during a year, rather than summing that findings from one district at
one point in time hold constant for an entire country or worse, humankind in toto- at all times.
For instance, the knowledge gap held true before the campaign, with the information rich getting
even richer with access to news. But it did not apply at the height of the campaign, when the
abundance of information allowed those with fewer years of formal instruction to catch up.
Moreover, examining the behavior of respondents who had acquired either cable or home
internet between the two waves of the survey, challenges the notion that increased media choice
reduces news consumption371, as cable made no significant difference, and internet access led to
148
more attention to news. The interviews confirm that increased online access is associated with
slightly higher levels of news consumption, although the main driver remains the interplay
between interest, effort, and perceived benefit of acquiring information.
Access, information, and engagement and the future of citizenship
The evidence presented in this dissertation underscores the importance of access to media
as one of many factors influencing engagement with the polity. It has also shown that access to
media is not equally distributed, with technological inequalities reproducing, for the most part,
the social, economic, and gender inequalities that predate them. The persistence of differences in
access to and use of media and information technologies is not a new phenomenon. Studies
indicate that there have been differences across and within nations in literacy levels, 372 access to
newspapers, 373 and access to television sets.374 However, disparities in access to internet-enabled
devices have conceited significantly more public and private rhetoric if not necessarily always
accompanied by action- than earlier technologies, such as radio and television.
When broadcast technology emerged, states and corporations invested in transmission
technologies and content creation,375 but for the most part left acquisition of the devices to
consumers. However, by 1965, 20 years after the launch of broadcast television in the United
States 93% of American households featured a television set.376 In contrast, by 2013, 18 years
after the launch of commercial Internet Service Providers, only 72% of households had an
internet connection.377 Likewise, in Argentina, where television was officially launched in 1951,
television had spread widely the 1980s378, with 94 percent of households in the City of Buenos
Aires and 84 percent in the rest of the country owning television sets. In comparison, by 2014,
only 60 percent of Argentinian households had an internet connection at home.379 The relatively
149
slower rate of adoption of internet technology, as well as the perceived benefits of this
technology over others (due to affordances such as two-way communication and ease of content
creation) has led governments and NGOs to concern themselves with the diffusion of this
particular innovation.380 How can states and organizations promote information-seeking and
civic engagement online? There are four possible ways of addressing this issue.
The first one consists in doing nothing, and expecting the market to distribute access to
media and technology. This position would be exemplified by former chair of the Federal
Communications Commission Michael Powell, who argued that, although it was an important
social issue, it shouldnt be used to justify the notion of essentially, the socialization of the
deployment of infrastructure.381 The problem with this course of (in)action is that it ignores the
real consequences access to media and information technologies might have across all sectors of
society. Moreover, market solutions, such as smart phones, have suboptimal consequences when
compared to autonomous use of the internet,382 and consequently, fewer or none beneficial
outcomes than universal home access. This course of action would result in the reproduction of
inequality, and the exclusion of a part of society (old people, homeless) from a growing venue
for knowledge acquisition and political engagement.
The second approach is to address solely the socio-economic conditions that predate and
explain some of the differences in access and use. Some authors and policymakers have argued
that digital inequalities are solely a function of poverty. In this view, both government and NGOs
have more pressing concerns, such as fighting hunger and fatal diseases, that fostering
connectivity. 383 But the solve poverty first, and everything else will be solved in the process
stance fails to account for three different objections that might be raised against this position.
150
First, differences in access are not only related to socioeconomic inequalities. Other factors, such
as gender, age, and even geographic location affect he chances somebody might have access to
media and information technologies.384 In chapter 2 this dissertation shows how those of low and
medium socioeconomic status in poorer districts were significantly less likely to have online
access at home than their counterparts in the relatively affluent Buenos Aires. Second, lack of
access to media and information technologies may intensify already existing inequalities, by
preventing access to both market and political opportunities. Mossberger and McNeal have
defined digital citizenship, as the ability to participate in the society online, and argue that
people across all income brackets benefit from online access. 385 Indeed, the findings presented in
chapters 3 and 4 show that access to some media and information technologies has positive,
albeit modest, outcomes even when controlling for basic demographic characteristics such as
socioeconomic and education levels, and more sophisticated measures of political competency,
such as information level, and internal and external efficacy. Finally, although resources are by
definition scarce, this does not mean that they should all be allocated to the same, most pressing
item. Governments and civil society organizations can and do tackle various issues at all times,
and some attention on digital inequalities does not preclude attention to hunger and poverty.
Access to media and information technologies might contribute to the fight against hunger and
fatal diseases, through the more equitable distribution of information across affected nations. Sen
has argued that free communication and empowered citizens are critical to preventing famines. 386
The third plausible strategy, one that many nations and local governments have
implemented, is to subsidize the development of the national infrastructure to make it easier for
service providers to increase their reach within each country. However, research has shown that
151
families are reluctant to pay for the hardware and a monthly fee to access certain types of media
and information technologies.387 Katz and Galperin show that, although 96% of households in
Argentina ere within the range of fixed broadband coverage in 2011, only 39% hired the
service.388 They found a similar demand gap in various Latin American countries. The
interviews presented in chapter 2 of this dissertation highlight the economic costs some
respondents made when deciding whether to acquire media services with a monthly fee, such as
cable and internet access. In the case of online access, reluctance to spend is intensified by the
need to acquire costly hardware to go online, and the sense that the technology would be difficult
to use. Thus, although subsidizing infrastructure development may be a worthy goal, on its own
it does not guarantee access to media and information technologies.
The fourth solution would aim to complement the construction of a technological
backbone which in many countries is already in place, with the exception or rural remote
communities- with a program of hardware distribution and subsidized connection fees. Although
universal access has figured prominently among policy and academic recommendations, it is
not always clear what it means. While I was writing the final chapter of this dissertation, the
president of Argentina sent a bill to Congress to modify regulation of telecommunications,
pertinently named Argentina Digital. In its article 18, the text of the bill states The Federal
State guarantees Universal Service, understood as the ensemble of OCT (Information and
Communication Technologies) services that should be available to all users, at fair quality and
prices, independent of their geographic location 389. However, the bill stops short of specifying
what this universal access comprises, only clarifying in article 19 that universal access is a
dynamic concept.390 Based on the findings presented in this dissertation, I propose that a policy
152
of universal access should both facilitate, through subsidies or cheap credit, home equipment
with media and information technologies, rather than forcing the less privileged to walk to a
cybercaf or a library to go online. Broadband access fees should also be subsidized, for
instance, through the reduction or elimination of taxes associated with basic connectivity plans,
or for individuals and households considered low income, as Katz and Galperin propose.391
Although both the federal government and some local governments in Argentina have
implemented policies that distribute netbooks among school students, they have not
complemented this initiative with policy with subsidies for broadband access or free wireless
services.
The fourth course of action would almost certainly lead to a reduction in digital
inequalities, but it would not necessarily reinvigorate public life and civic engagement, amid a
context of inequality, fragmentation, apathy, and reduced political efficacy due to questioning of
the responsiveness of political institutions. However, the prospect of a two or three-tiered society
in regards to connectivity is in itself worrisome enough to attempt to solve increasingly
segmented and stratified patterns of access to media technologies, which allow not only
acquisition of information, but also participation through expression of political preferences in
informal and formal settings, such as casual commenting on social network sites and contacting
public officials.
In the previous chapters I have shown that there is unequal access to media and
information technologies, and that being able to connect is associated with increased
opportunities to acquire information and participate in the polity. The account of a two-tiered
society, in which some people have full access to media, and others have some access to media,
153
in different, more demanding circumstances, raises alarms regarding the possibility that all
inhabitants may be citizens, that is, full members of a community.392 T. H. Marshall traces the
evolution of citizenship from civil rights in the eighteenth century, political rights in the
nineteenth, and social rights in the twentieth. The first is composed by liberty of the person,
freedom of speech, thought and religion, the right to own property and the right to justice.
Political citizenship is comprised by the right to participate in the exercise of political power, for
example, through voting, joining a political party, and petitioning to the authorities. Social
citizenship includes the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and
security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized
being according to the standards prevailing in the society. 393 Marshall proposes that although
all who possess the status [of citizens] are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which
the status is endowed. Thus, although there is no universal principle that determines what those
rights and duties shall be, but (...) an image of an ideal citizenship against which achievement
can be measured and towards which aspiration can be directed.394
Several authors have considered access to media as part of citizenship rights in the late
twentieth and early twenty-first century. 395 Moreover, Marshall had explicitly linked increased
access to the familiar instruments of modern democracy to gains in citizenship: political
journalism for the intelligentsia was followed by newspapers for all who could read, public
meetings, propaganda campaigns, and associations for the furtherance of public causes. 396 In the
twenty-first century, unfettered access to media and information technologies is inextricably
associated with citizenship as full membership of the local, national and human community. The
exercise of civil rights, such as freedom of expression, benefits immensely from being able to
154
publish thoughts and ideas online. Dutton and colleagues include freedom of connection
among a broad set of digital rights and recommend the development of infrastructures and
services and reduced costs to access as strategies to achieve it. 397 Political rights also gain from
access to media technologies: holding public officials accountable,398 organizing political
assemblies and even petitioning to the authorities are need not be conducted in face-to-face
setting at all times. Online political participation would be even more valuable for those without
the time or resources to partake in these activities in person. Finally, media and information
technologies are valuable tools to share the social heritage and live life according to the
standards prevailing in society. Cultural products are increasingly created and distributed online,
effectively marginalizing those who cannot access them, either due lack of a connection or lack
of media skills.
The idea of a two-tiered society in regards to media access also threatens what Habermas
characterizes as the abstract public sphere of isolated readers, listeners, and viewers scattered
across large geographic areas through the establishment of segmented public spheres ...
constituted with the help of exclusion mechanisms (...) without a proviso for [their]
abolishment.399 Although some scholars have argued that the public sphere as examined by
Habermas was always to some extent exclusionary on the basis of class and gender,400
segmentation based on access to certain channels of communication would deepen already
existing inequalities and further endanger democratic politics.
Both Marshalls and Habermas accounts have been criticized for glossing over gaping
inequalities that obstructed democratic citizenship and deliberation. Their theories are the
product of the second part of the twentieth century, a period during which the existence of
155
inclusionary democracies, in which differences did not obstruct the equal exercise of rights,
seemed possible. After the nineteenth century, during which print, with various publics
segmented by class, gender and religion, had been the main form of communication among
citizens, broadcast technologies offered during a few decades a glimpse of unified national
public spheres, through both public and private broadcasters. By the twenty-first century, it is
almost certain that that dream is over. Segmented television markets through the establishment of
cable and satellite networks first, and the differentiated diffusion of the internet killed it.401
As this dissertation has shown, class, gender and geographic location complicate access
to online technologies to a larger extent than they do with radio and television. Moreover, even if
the internet does not realize a range of human rights, combat inequality, and accelerate
development and human progress, as the UN report cited in chapter 1 promised, it does
contribute to a fuller exercise of some civil, political and social rights. The recommendations
offered in this chapter to encourage the majority of citizens to take advantage of these
opportunities cannot erase inequality, fragmentation, apathy, and reduced political efficacy that
are prevalent in post industrial societies, both developed and developing. However, following
these recommendations might at least halter the reproduction of inequalities, political
segmentation, public indifference and feelings of irrelevance among voters through differentiated
access to media and information technologies. The internet will not revolutionize politics. Lets
hope it wont also create first and second class citizens, according to their capacity to pay for
what should be a universal right.
156
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Endnotes
1
La Rue, 2011
Castells 2001; Benkler 2006, Jenkins 2006.
Avery, 2009;Cappella & Jamieson 1997; Mutz & Reeves, 2005; Robinson, 1975.
Putnam, 1993, 2000.
Sunstein, 2001.
Prior, 2007.
Hindman, 2009, p. 3.
Katz & Rice, 2002.
Boczkowski, 2005, p. 2.
10
Williams, 1972, p. 12
11
Cockburn, 1992; Katz & Rice, 2002; Silverstone & Hirsh, 1992.
12
Boczkowski & Lievrouw, 2008; Johnson & Rice 1980.
13
Farrell 2012.
14
Bennet & Iyengar, 2009, p. 723.
15
Van Dijk, 2006, pag, 232.
16
Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2010.
17
Norris, 2001; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010, Warschahuer, 2004.
18
Schudson, 1998; Zaller, 2003.
19
Donohue, Tichenor, & Olien, 1975; Ettema & Kline, 1977; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970.
20
Noelle-Neumann, 1974; 1977.
21
22
23
24
183
Brady, Verba, & Schlozman, 1995; Rosenstone & Hansen, 1993; Verba & Nie, 1972.
Neuman, 1986; Verba, Burns, & Schlozman, 1997.
Almond & Verba, 1963; Booth & Seligson 2009; Putnam, 2000.
Bennett & Entman, 2001; Downs, 1957; Druckman, 2005; Graber, 2006; Habermas, 1996;
Iyengar & Kinder, 1987.

25
Boczkowski & Lievrouw, 208, p. 949.
26
Schement & Curtis, 1997, Katz & Rice, 2002; Silverstone & Hirsh, 1992.
27
Webster 1998 .
28
Bimber, 1998; Neuman, 2001; Weber, Loumakis, & Bergman, 2003.
29
Amadeo, 2007; 2006; Boulianne, 2009; de Vreese, 2007; Johnson & Kaye, 2003; Shah, Cho,
Eveland, & Kwak, 2005.

30
Boulianne, 2009.
31
Albrecht, 2006; Best & Krueger, 2005; Bonchek, 1997; Chadwick, 2006; Krueger, 2002;
Papacharissi, 2002.
32
Donohue, Tichenor, & Olien, 1975; Ettema & Kline, 1977; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970.
33
Jerit, Barabas, & Bolsen, 2006, p. 267.
34
Dutta-Bergman, 2004; Graber, 1996; Krueger, 2006; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Prior, 2005,
2007.
35
36
37
Benkler, 2006; Coleman & Gtze, 2001; Etzioni, 2003; Jenkins, 2006.
Prior, 2005; 2007.
Boulianne, 2009, Mossberger et al, 2009, Tolbert & McNeal, 2003.
38
184
Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013; Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2001; Boczkowski,
Mitchelstein & Walter, 2012; Iyengar & Simon, 2000; Just, Crigler, et al, 1997.
39
40
41
42
Schudson, 1998; Zaller, 2003.

Glynn, Hayes & Shanahan, 1997, Noelle-Neumann, 1974.
Hooghe & Marine, 2013; Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Niemi, Craig & Mattei, 1992.
Carreras & Irepoglu, 2013.
43
Boczkowski, 2010, p. 162.
44
Horrigan, Rainie, & Fox, 2001; Mariscal, 2005; Oxendine, Borgida, Sullivan, & Jackson, 2003.
45
Cecchini, 2005; Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Heeks, 2001; Jensen, Danziger, & Venkatesh, 2007;
Norris, 2001.
46
Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Servon, 2002; Warschauer, 2002.
47
Cecchini, 2005; Galperin, 2004; Mariscal, 2005.
48
Barzilai-Nahon 2006, Di Maggio et al. 2004; Hargittai 2002, Hargittai and Hsieh 2013; van
Dijk 2005.
49
50
DiMaggio, Hargittai, Celeste, & Shafer, 2004; ; Hargittai, 2008; Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008.
Krueger, 2006; Katz &Rice, 2002; Jennings & Zeitner, 2003.
51
Boulianne, 2009, p. 199.
52
Althaus& Tewksbury, 2002, Conway & Patterson, 2008; Price & Cappella, 2002.
53
Galperin & Mariscal, 2007; Gurstein, 2003; Hargittai, 2008; Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008; Van
Dijk & Hacker, 2003; DiMaggio, Hargittai, Celeste, & Shafer, 2004.
54
55
Campante, Durante and Sobbrio, 2013.

Brady, Verba, & Schlozman, 1995; Rosenstone & Hansen, 1993; Verba & Nie, 1972.
185
56
Neuman, 1986; Verba, Burns, & Schlozman, 1997
57
Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996, p. 1.
58
Almond & Verba, 1963; Booth & Seligson 2009; Putnam, 2000.
59
It is officially called Ciudad Autnoma de Buenos Aires to differentiate it from the Province
of Buenos Aires. Hereafter I will refer to it as Buenos Aires, except when context demands
that it be distinguished from the province.
60
It is officially called Ciudad de Santa Fe to differentiate it from the Province of Santa Fe, of
which it is the capital. Hereafter I will refer to it as Santa Fe, except when context demands
that it be distinguished from the province.
61
For a definition of polyarchy, see Dahl, 1971. For a classification of Argentinas political
regime, see Polity IV.

62
More details on the locations and how and why they were selected in Chapter 2 of this
dissertation.
63
Williams, Rice & Roger, 1988.
64
Five online sites of newspapers from Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Resistencia were included in
the sample, as well as an online news outlet from Resistencia, and the Internet counterpart of the
most watched national cable news channel. Jos C. Paz has no local news source (either in print
or in television) and its closeness to Buenos Aires means that it has access mostly to Buenos
Aires media. The sites added a total of at least 22 million unique visitors in the second semester
of 2011, when this research was conducted, and the print counterparts of the newspaper had a
pooled average circulation of 500,000.
65
More detailed accounts of the methodology are presented in chapters 2, 3 and 4.
66
67
Bauer, 2000; Graber, 1984.

Krippendorf 2004.
68
See, for instance, Zaller, 2003, and Bennett, 2003.
69
Capella & Hall Jamieson, 1997.
70
Putnam , 1995.
71
Noelle-Neumann, 1974.
72
Jordn, Galperin & Peres, 2013.
73
Personal interview, November 25 2010.
74
Personal interview, October 21 2011.
75
Personal interview, December 4 2010.
76
Personal interview, May 23 2011.
77
Personal interview, October 20 2011.
78
Barzilai-Nahon 2006, Di Maggio et al. 2004; Hargittai 2002, Hargittai and Hsieh 2013; van
Dijk 2005.
79
Boulianne,2009; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Nisbet & Scheufele, 2004; Tolbert & McNeal,
2003.
80
Lupia & Philpot, 2005; Tewksbury, Weaver & Maddex, 2001.
81
Bakker & De Vreese, 2011; Baum, 2003, Esser & de Vreese, 2007.
82
Bennett & Entman, 2001; Downs, 1957; Druckman, 2005; Graber, 2006; Habermas, 1996;
Iyengar & Kinder, 1987.

83
Prior, 2007, pp. 28-29.
84
Boczkowski & Lievrouw, 2007, p. 949.
186
85
Schement & Curtis, 1997, Katz & Rice, 2002; Silverstone & Hirsch, 1992.
86
Jenkins, 2006; Webster, 1998.
87
Berkowitz, 1992, 2000; Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013.
88
Guillen and Suarez 2005, Andres et al. 2007.
89
Horrigan 2009, Mesch & Talmud 2011.
90
Das, Ester & Kaczmirek 2010.
91
Rice & Haythornthwaite, 2006 .
92
187
Horrigan, Rainie, & Fox, 2001; Mariscal, 2005; Oxendine, Borgida, Sullivan, & Jackson,
2003.
93
Cecchini, 2005; Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Heeks, 2001; Jensen, Danziger, & Venkatesh, 2007;
Norris, 2001.
94
Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Servon, 2002; Warschauer, 2002.
95
Galperin & Mariscal, 2007; Gurstein, 2003; Hargittai, 2008; Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008; van
Dijk & Hacker, 2003.

96
DiMaggio, Hargittai, Celeste, & Shafer, 2004, p. 374.
97
Cecchini, 2005; Galperin, 2004; Mariscal, 2005.
98
Jordn, Galperin & Peres, 2013.
99
Cleary & Stokes, 2006; Gibson & Calvo, 2000; UNDP, 2009.
100
Navas-Sabater, Dymond, & Juntunen, 2002, p. 10.
101
Cecchini, 2005, p. 10.
102
Hargittai & Hsieh, 2013, p. 133.
103
188
Chan and Leung, 2005; Hujanen and Pietikainen, 2004; Kayany and Yelsma, 2000;
Livingstone and Markham, 2008; Nguyen and Western, 2007

104
Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch, 1974
105
Dutta-Bergman 2004; Lin et al., 2005; Livingstone, 2004; Sheehan, 2002
106
McCombs, 1972
107
Gentzkow, 2007; Gunter et al., 2003; Kaye and Johnson, 2003; Lin et al., 2005
108
Ahlers, 2006; Coleman and McCombs, 2007; Lee, 2006; Ogan et al., 2008
109
Poindexter, Meraz and Schmitz-Weiss, 2010
110
Schramm, 1949, McLeod and Perse 1994.
111
McLeod & Perse, 1994, Poindexter, 2000
112
Bennett, 2003; Patterson, 2000
113
Downs, 1957
114
Zaller, 2003; Schudson, 1995
115
Putnam 1993
116
Cleary and Stokes, 2006
117
King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994; Snyder, 2001
118
According to the Polity IV Project, Argentina has averaged +8 from 1983 until 2009 in a 21-
point scale ranging from -10 (hereditary monarchy) to +10 (consolidated democracy).
119
UNDP 2009
120
UNDP 2002
121
IDC, 2009; INDEC, 2009
122
Bril Mascarenhas, 2007
123
CNC, 2009
124
UNDP, 2002
125
IDC, 2009; INDEC, 2009
126
UNDP 2002
127
INDEC 2001
128
UNDP 2009
129
UNDP 2002
130
IDC, 2009; INDEC, 2009
131
AAPOR 2008
132
Williams, Rice and Rogers, 1988
133
Graber, 1984, 2001
134
189
When compared to the general population of the four locations, those who had not finished
high school or had fewer years of education were under-represented (18% vs. 33%) and those
who had completed college were over-represented (30% vs. 11%). The sample did not aim at
being representative, but at including respondents with varying ages, educational levels and
socioeconomic strata.
135
It should be noted that not necessarily all the respondents paid for the connection The
Argentina Association of Cable Television (ATCV by its initials in Spanish) estimates that many
cable and satellite connections are illegal (ATCV, 2011
http://www.atvc.org.ar/?pagina=detalleNoticia&nId=107).
136
Jordn et al 2012.
137
Cecchini, 2005; Navas Savater et al, 2002
138
Prior, 2005, 2007
139
Personal Interview, November 17 2010
140
Personal Interview, September 26 2011
141
Personal Interview, November 30, 2010
142
Personal Interview, September 29, 2011
143
Personal Interview, October 19 2011
144
Personal Interview, December 17 2010
145
146
147
148
149
Personal interview, November 15 2010
150
Personal Interview, January 3 2011
151
152
153
154
155
Personal Interview, December 10, 2010
156
Personal Interview, May 18 2011
157
Personal Interview, November 29, 2011
158
159
Personal interview, December 21 2011
190
160
Personal Interview, October 15, 2010
161
162
163
164
165
166
Personal Interview, March 17 2011
167
168
Personal Interview, October 2, 2010
169
170
171
172
Personal Interview, April 7 2011
173
Personal communication, September 2011
174
175
176
Personal Interview, October 6 2010.
177
178
179
Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.
180
Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2011, p. 1088
181
Boczkowski and Mitchelstein, 2013
191
192
182
Bennett, 2003; Patterson, 2000
183
Zaller, 2003; Schudson, 1995
184
Hargittai and Hsieh, 2013
185
Brady, Verba, & Schlozman, 1995; Rosenstone & Hansen, 1993; Verba & Nie, 1972
186
Price, 1999: 591
187
Neuman, 1986; Verba, Burns, & Schlozman, 1997
188
Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996, p. 1
189
Almond & Verba, 1963; Booth & Seligson 2009; Putnam, 2000
190
191
Brady, 1999, p. 596
192
Lau & Redlawsk, 2001 Price & Zaller, 1993, Stimson, 1975
193
Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1993; Zaller, 1992, Price 1999
194
Bartels, 1993, Blekesaune et al, 2012, Curran, Iyengar et al, 2009, Zaller, 1996
195
Chaffee & Kanihan, 1997; Dalrymple and Scheufele, 2007, Kim, 2008, Neuman et al, 1992;
Patterson & McClure, 1976

196
Druckman, 2005: Robinson & Davis, 1990
197
Althaus & Tewksbury, 2002: Schoenbach et al, 2005
198
Dutta-Bergman, 2004; Graber, 1996; Krueger, 2006; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Prior, 2005,
2007
199
2001, p. 123
200
Althaus, Cizmar and Gimpel 2009; Druckman 2013; Prior, 2005; 2007;
201
Arnold, 2006; Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013, Holbrook, 1996, Smidt, 2010
202
Just, Crigler, et al, 1996
203
Iyengar & Simon, 2000
204
Donohue, Tichenor, & Olien, 1975; Ettema & Kline, 1977; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien,
193
1970
205
Jerit, Barabas, & Bolsen, 2006, p. 267
206
2008, p. 205
207
Eveland & Scheufele , 2000.
208
Holbrook 2002; Moore 1987; Zaller, 1996
209
In May 2011, Clarn had a daily average daily circulation of 277,000, La Nacin had an
average daily circulation of 159,000, El Litoral had an average daily circulation of 16,000, Diario
Uno Santa Fe had an average daily circulation of 6,000, and Norte had an average daily
circulation of 16,000 (IVC, 2011). The online edition of Clarn had 12 million unique visitors in
November 2010, and la Nacin had 6 million unique visitors during the same period (IAB
Argentina, cited in Clarn 2011). TN was the most viewed cable news network and its online
edition had 4 million unique visitors in 2011 (Anuario TN, 2011).
210
See Boczkowski & Mitchelstein 2013
211
All the sites except Diario Norte made the most read stories publicly available. The number
of most read stories posted by each site varied throughout the year of data collection. Clarn and
Data Chaco and El Litoral always posted 10, La Nacin Posted between 5 and 10, averaging 8.5
during the period of data collection, TN posted 5 until May 2011, and 10 thereafter, averaging
7.35, and Uno always posted 5.
212
194
The small difference with the expected number of stories (n=10,130 for the homepage and
8,085 the most read list) results from the retrieval of repeated stories that were later excluded
from analysis (journalists list) and that these sites posted less than 10 stories in their most read
rankings (consumers list) during a few days.
213
According to Fleiss, Levin and Paik values greater than 0.75 may be taken to represent
excellent agreement beyond chance. (2003, p. 604)

214
This coding scheme is adapted from Boczkowski and Mitchelstein (2013).
215
Political knowledge will be measured using a one-dimensional scale, based on the one
proposed by Delli Carpini and Keeter (1993) which includes items about the candidates and
parties policy positions, identification of political figures, and factual questions about rules and
procedures. The questions posed to all respondents were 1) Do you remember the name of the
vice-president? 2) Which public office does (Chief Justice) Ricardo Lorenzetti hold? 3) Which
party has the most seats in the Senate? 4) How long does a Senator last in office and 5) in which
month will the presidential election be held?
216
The scores cannot be compared because the questions for the second wave were different
from those of the first wave: 1) Who is (incumbent) Cristina Fernndez de Kirchners vicepresidential candidate? 2) Javier Gonzlez Fraga is the vice-presidential candidate to which
presidential candidate? 3) What percentage of votes does the winning party need to avoid a runoff election? 4) Which party received the most votes in the primaries? And 5) What is the exact
date of the election?
218
Mainwaring , 1988
219
195
Ricardo Alfonsn obtained 12.20%, Eduardo Duhalde 12.12%, Hermes Binner 10.18%,
Rodrguez Saa 8.17%, and Elisa Carri 3 .22%.

220
2011 was the first time the PASO (Primarias Abiertas, Simultneas y Obligatorias Open,
simultaneous, Compulsory primaries) were held in Argentina. They were created by Law n
26,571, sanctioned in December 2009, and until January 2011 opposition parties challenged the
law in the courts, with no success (Mendelevich, 2011). Future research should take into account
the primaries as instances of information acquisition.
221
There is s previous peak in November 2011, which is explained by former president (and late
husband of the incumbent) Nstor Kirchners death on October 27 of that year.

222
Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013
223
Clarn, TN and (to a lesser extent) La Nacin could be characterized as critical to the
incumbent (Waisbord 2010, Mastrini & Becerra 2014) which may be a contributing factor to the
drop in public affairs coverage after the primaries. However, that doesnt explain either the
relatively high levels of coverage and audience interest during the primaries, or the drop across
all sites after the primaries.
224
Although the feud between grupo Clarn, Clarns parent company, and the Fernandez de
Kirchner administration has been documented (Mastrini & Becerra, 2014, Waisbord, 2010)
interviewees, from the entire ideological spectrum, mentioned Clarin online as one of their news
sources.
225
Personal communication, May 5 2011
226
Personal communication, December 3 2010
227
Personal communication, December 10 2010
228
Personal Communication, December 8 2010
229
230
231
232
Personal Communication October 10 2011
233
Personal Communication, December 10 2012.
234
Personal Communication, October 6 2011.
235
Personal Communication, May 9 2011
236
Personal Communication, May 2 2011
237
Personal Communication, March 17 2011
238
Law 26,571 indicates that electoral advertising should start 30 days before the date of the
primary election.
239
This is confirmed by the survey, where 87% of the respondents said they had voted in the
primaries
240
Personal Communication, September 29 2011
241
Personal Communication, October 13 2011
242
243
Personal Communication, October 20 2011.
244
245
Personal Communication, October 5, 2011
246
247
Personal Communication, September 26 2011.
196
197
248
249
Ettema, Brown and Luepker, 1983.
250
Zaller, 1996
251
252
Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013; Just, Crigler, et al, 1996
253
Kennamer and Chaffee, 1981.
254
255
Lazarsfeld & Merton, 1948, p. 106
256
Personal Interview, December 1 2010.
257
258
Several authors have made a distinction between these three types of citizen engagement. For
instance, see Brady, 1999, Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli Carpini, 2006.
259
Niemi, Craig & Mattei, 1991.
260
Noelle-Neumann, 1974
261
Boczkowski & Lievrouw, 2007
262
Amadeo, 2007; Boulianne, 2009; de Vreese, 2007; Johnson & Kaye, 2003; Shah, Cho,
Eveland, & Kwak, 2005

263
2011, p. 16
264
Benkler, 2006; DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, 2001; Moe, 2008; Papacharissi,
2004
265
Albrecht, 2006; Best & Krueger, 2005; Bonchek, 1997; Chadwick, 2006; Krueger, 2002;
Papacharissi, 2002, Wei and Hindman, 2011
198
266
Bimber, 2001; Davis, 1999; Kenski & Stroud, 2006
267
2002: 65
268
Eliasoph, 1998; Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2002
269
Benkler, 2006; Coleman & Gtze, 2001; Etzioni, 2003; Jenkins, 2006
270
Niemi, Craig & Mattei, 1991, p. 1407
271
Niemi, Craig & Mattei, 1991, p. 1408
272
Almond & Verba, 1963
273
Putnam, 1993; Cleary and Stokes, 2006; Rotolo and Wilson, 2011, Oliver 2000
274
Putnam, 2000
275
Cleary and Stokes, 2006
276
Just, Crigler, et al, 1996, Hansen & Pedersen, 2014, Iyengar & Simon, 2000
277
Banducci and Karp, 2003; Rhan, Brehm, Carlson 1999; Lindberg 2004
278
Austin & Pinkleton 1999, Pinkleton & Weinstraub Austin 2004; Yamamoto & Kushin, 2014
279
The only exception was among respondents with less than a high school education in
Resistencia, among which there is a high prevalence of government employment and subsidies.
The main driver of the increase in political expression from before the camion to the height of
the campaign was the question did you talk about politics...?, which received a positive answer
from 22% of participants with less than a high school education before the campaign, compared
to 54% in October, a few days before the election. Worry about changes in their employment or
subsidies regimes after the election might have led Resistencianos with lower levels of education
to discuss politics with friends and family.
280
199
In Resistencia, civic participation appears to have declined across all respondents. Although
the data do not provide any clear explanations for this phenomenon, Resistencia has the highest
levels of political participation of the four locations, which may have competed with civic
participation for citizens time and resources during an election year.
281
282
283
Personal Interview, December12 2010
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
Personal Interview, March 15 2011
292
Personal Interview, December 1, 2010.
293
294
295
296
297
298
Personal interview, September 28 2011
299
300
301
Personal interview, December 2, 2010
302
303
Personal Interview, May 29 2011.
304
Personal interview, March 16 2011
305
Personal interview, November 15 2010
306
Personal interview, October 5 2011
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
Personal interview, June 8 2011
317
318
Personal Interview, September 29, 2011.
319
320
Personal Interview, October 7, 2010.
200
321
Persona interview, May 29 2011
322
323
324
Personal Interview, September 29 2010.
325
Personal Interview, November 17 2010.
326
Personal Interview, September 29 2011.
327
328
329
330
331
Personal Interview, November 17 2010.
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
Capella & Hall Jamieson, 1997
339
Putnam , 2000
340
Brown, Campbell & Ling, 2011
341
Hargittai & Hsieh, 2012
342
Rosenstone and Hansen, 2003, p. 5
201
343
Downs, 1957
344
Eliasoph 1998
345
Mutz, 2006
346
Hampton, Rainie et al, 2014
347
348
Fleitas, 1971; Simon1954
349
DiMaggio, Hargittai, Celeste, & Shafer, 2004, p. 374
350
Norris, 2001; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010, Warschauer, 2004
202
351
Schudson, 1998; Zaller, 2003
352
Donohue, Tichenor, & Olien, 1975; Ettema & Kline, 1977; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970
353
354
Merton, 1968
355
Pearce and Rice, 2013, p. 722.
356
Walton & Donner, 2012, p. 6.
357
Di Maggio, Hargittai, Celeste and Shafer, 2004; Pearce and Rice, 2013.
358
Walton & Donner, 2012, p. 6.
359
Compaine, 2001, p. IX
360
Di Maggio, Hargittai, Celeste and Shafer, 2004, Warschauer, 2002, Van Dijk, 2006
361
Schudson, 1998; Zaller, 2003
362
Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013; Boczkowski, Mitchelstein & Walter, 2012; Iyengar &
Simon, 2000; Just, Crigler, et al, 1997

363
See, for instance, Zaller, 2003, and Bennett, 2003
364
Donohue, Tichenor, & Olien, 1975; Ettema & Kline, 1977; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970
365
Zaller, 1996
366
367
Capella & Hall Jamieson, 1997
368
Putnam , 1995
369
Downs, 1957
370
203
371
Prior, 2005, 2007
372
Unesco, 2014
373
Stewart, 2009
374
Mann, 2006
375
Barnow, 1990, Smulyan, 1994
376
Hannemyr, 2003: television Bureau of Advertising, 2012
377
Pew, 2014, http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/internet-use/connection-type/
378
Morgan & Shanahan, 1991; Waisbord 1994
379
AHCIET 2014
380
Rockhman,2011; Epstein, Nisbet & Gillespie, 2011
381
cited in Rockhman, 2011, p. 192
382
Hargittai & Hsieh, 2013, p. 133
383
Rockhman, 2011, Fuchs, 2009
384
Livingstone & Helsper, 2006
385
Mossberger, Tolbert & Mc Neal, 2007, Mossberger 2009
386
Sen, 1999
387
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Information, Interest and Indifference: Structural and Contingent Reasons For Engagement During A Presidential Campaign

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Information, Interest and Indifference: Structural and Contingent Reasons For Engagement During A Presidential Campaign

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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Information, interest and indifference:

SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

for the degree

Program in Media, Technology, and Society, School of Communication

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

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INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

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INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

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INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

strive to offer universal access, characterized as access to media technology in every

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

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INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE

INFORMATION INTEREST INDIFFERENCE