Opinion Sur Joven

The world’s level of technical knowledge has increased enormously and politics is being transformed as well: it must be adapted to the strongly emerging information era. The world has become a global village that’s hyper-connected and has been gradually fragmented in political terms. New information technologies are here to stay, and in some cases their advance transforms traditional political practices.

Virtual politics

Nowadays, young people find territorial political participation or mass media in traditional formats unappealing. According to a research performed by the consulting firm D’Alessio irol among young Latin Americans between ages 16 and 27, Internet and cell phones are the most popular channels of communication. The study, called Interacción entre medios, Internet y jóvenes en Latinoamérica (“Interaction between the media, Internet and young people in Latin America”] states that, despite this, they’re returning to the traditional media, but through other formats such as digital newspapers and radios. This is a relevant fact, because it makes political organizations press look for approach strategies using new information technology in order to broadcast their ideas among young citizens.

But everything’s not about replacing one format for another one: unlike political parties and traditional media, in the Internet young people may not only be consumers, but also producers of ideological contents, giving birth to new ways of communication and participation. As a result, for example, a group of young people creates a website to receive donations for flood victims in Argentina, a young man creates a website for environmental defense connecting users from all over Latin America, or thousands of people participate via email to find a missing teenager.

Demián Profeta, a coordinator of Taking IT Global in Argentina (an international NGO promoting the use of the Internet for youth participation), gives his opinion on this: “Internet users using the Net’s resources are limited to a minimum portion of it, although this doesn’t invalidate it as a tool. Think about videos with messages from politicians. Said channel has no intervention and, unlike the information in the media, the message reaches the person without being edited or previously rated.

The Internet is also useful to broadcast less famous candidates, such as Patricia Bullrich, a member of the Coalición Cívica (civic coalition) party, who provides updates on the latest news of her website for registered users.

In times when transparency is highly appreciated by the population, it is also useful for being held accountable or as a monitoring tool. “The politician is exposed to the citizens’ demands, to what he says or fails to say regarding an issue posed by the public”, Demián Profeta explains, bringing as an example the case of the mayor of the city of Buenos Aires’ blog, Jorge Telerman. “Throughout the election campaign he would make posts and receive opinions every day. Telerman made a good use of this technology, because he generated a proximity sensation”.

Hugo Pasarello Luna, co-director of the website Argentina Elections, believes that “in the Internet people become more aggressive because they’re protected by anonymity. There they can feel offended and share their disappointment with other Internet users, or rebuke a candidate almost without intervention”. Of course, not all websites have the option of leaving comments; Cavallo.com.ar, the political website of Domingo Cavallo, Argentina’s former finance minister, has no spaces for opinion.

The access to virtual and democratic territory in Latin America has some restrictions. The obstacles are illiteracy, poverty and language: most of the Internet’s contents are in English. The digital gap gets wider in predominantly rural regions, where infrastructure can’t keep up with the expansion of this communication channel. Even in urban regions, where the service rendering is much better, there are sectors with an almost inexistent contact with new technologies. In this sense, a negative aspect of traditional politics is reproduced within the Net: it’s accomplished by those who are able to, not by those who want to. This situation leads to a sort of privatization of the virtual public space where new ways of political participation are developed.

“The technological expansion in Argentina is going well, although it depends on the market, which has become a leading actor when it comes to developing connectivity”, Profeta points out. However, he is optimistic: “New opportunities to bring politics closer to young people are generated as well”. For example, contextual election advertising in videogames such as Counter Strike, or strategy games on issues such as garbage disposal in a city. In conclusion, the Internet is becoming a new virtual space to exercise citizenship and political participation.

From Second Life to the world

Since elections in all governmental levels will take place this year, many representatives of Argentine politics have started to use new technologies as interactive ways of seducing the electorate. The loss of territoriality of politics becomes more evident when we start to see the result of new practices: online political campaigns.

Demián Abramowicz is the director of Dimnet, a consulting firm specialized in computer services which has worked in several online political campaigns. When asked about it by Opinión Sur Joven, he mentions the current state of this aspect of virtual politics: “The US was the first country to start getting votes through the Internet; there is a very strong trend among consulting firms, parties and candidates”. He mentions some examples such as Hillary Clinton’s, who launched her campaign through her website instead of organizing a multitudinous act; or the case of the primary elections of the Democrat Party, when the CNN posted videos in You Tube with people’s questions for the candidates. “They were afterwards invited to a TV debate, where the videos were aired for them to answer them”, the young consultant tells us.

Second Life is a game where people may live an online parallel life. There are campaigns and elections too. Jorge Telerman won the election in the virtual world: in the real one he got the third position. Francisco De Narváez put posters there of his campaign to run for governor of the province of Buenos Aires in next October elections.

What are the best strategies in the Net? Damián Profeta thinks “websites should allow individuals to appropriate them and re-publish their contents”. However, this option is available in very few websites. The De Narváez’s site is one of the few ones which make it possible.

Nowadays, almost all candidates for president in Argentina have their own websites: Ricardo López Murphy, the leader of the PRO Recrear party, has his “Bullblog”, where people may find videos uploaded in You Tube by the young people of the party with useful advice on the energy crisis. The site has a link called “PRO Humor”, which shows videos with jokes about him. “Laughing at yourself is PRO too”, reads a sign. “The current candidates belong to a generation that hasn’t naturally adopted new information technologies”, says Hugo Pasarello Luna. “This is reflected in some online political campaigns which aren’t properly designed and end up a failure. That’s why many times the young sectors of the parties are the ones in charge of creating and managing these sites, which have different levels of success”.

The spiritual leader of the Coalición Cívica party, Elisa Carrió, is present in the Net, although in a less interactive manner. In Elisacarrio.com.ar -one of her innumerable sites-, we may find a calendar with her different activities and information on the development of Coalición Cívica, as well as the different government proposals. The project of linking her website to a group of blogs created by the candidate’s young supporters in order to discuss issues specifically related to the youth such as drugs, disability, sexual health, etc., wasn’t successful. They have very few hits. “Carrió’s website doesn’t work because it doesn’t meet certain standards necessary for political websites; it’s from a prior stage of the Internet, which was overcome by the Web 2.0”, says

Abramowicz. He also mentions, not very enthusiastically, the website of another candidate for president, Roberto Lavagna, called Presidentelavagna.com: the former finance minister’s website includes embedded videos from You Tube where the candidate makes his proposals in front of a camera. There are also interviews, opinions, photos and the platform with his government proposals.

However, Demián criticizes the way candidates use the Internet: “Argentine politicians have no idea of its impact on population. It’s a generational matter, but it also has to do with political culture, because it’s useful to abandon old established practices such as clientelism networks. This isn’t about money, because traditional campaigns are much more expensive”. Cell phone technologies aren’t used here either; in the US they’re used even to raise money. The website of the candidate for president in the US Barak Obama includes icons for MSN, multimedia for cell phones and videos, people can make donations and there’s even a virtual shop to buy hats, T-shirts and cups with Obama’s face on them.

A few days ago, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the candidate for president in Argentina for the official party Frente para la Victoria (Front for Victory) launched her website in the Net. Although she has reserved some possible names (www.cristina.gov.ar, www.cristina.ar), she chose www.cristina.com.ar to enter virtual politics, a few weeks away from the elctions. There isn’t a fixed date for her launching in the Internet yet. Does the official party have little knowledge of the Net’s potential for politics? “Cristina doesn’t need a website to win, because Argentine society still has a traditional structure”, Demián points out. “Territorial politics are still very strong when it comes to presidential elections. Only 30% of Argentine inhabitants are considered to be Internet users. And we must have in mind that not all the inhabitants included in said percentage will vote”.

For now, almost all Argentine candidates have somehow started to aim at virtual politics. Although there’s always someone who hasn’t tried using the Net or got there late. Or will Cristina Fernández’s case be like the old saying goes, “today we follow, tomorrow we lead”? Only after October will we know it.

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