Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments June 21, 2023 erstellt
Description:
As political polarization has recently risen throughout Mexico, the literature partly blames social media for fueling this phenomenon. While some argue that social media increases polarization through echo chambers and selective exposure mechanisms, others indicate that social media moderates polarization through the exposure to ideologies that individuals otherwise would not have access to. Using data on mobile coverage, Facebook connections between municipalities, and Mexican Federal legislative elections between 2012 and 2021, I assess whether social media helps or limits the growth in political polarization. Results support both views in the literature as (1) an increase in mobile coverage penetration, which is directly tied to an increase in social media penetration, contributes to an increase in polarization (i.e. echo chambers and selective exposure), which has spiked since 2018, and (2) the exposure to an ideologically diverse social media network helps ameliorate the effects caused by an increase in social media coverage (i.e. the effect of the exposure to a diverse set of ideologies). Further, results show that a higher mobile coverage penetration has helped Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his polarizing strategy to win votes, which he intensified in 2018, the year in which he wins the Presidential elections. However, a higher ideological diversity and greater exposure to the opposition's ideas over social media limit the electoral return of such strategy