Policy in networks, networks in policy. Case study of the campaign #VivirSinMiedo

Abstract

This research project aims to explore the campaign for constitutional reform known as “Live Without Fear” as a case study on the use of electronic social networks at a political level in Uruguay. Among other points, the proposed amendment considers the creation of a military guard and the institution of “revisable life imprisonment”. The objective of this piece is to show how the different actors gathered around the theme capture and take ownership of the virtual space. Also to learn about the topological form of these networks and to see if these are able to depoliticize the issue and impact on the dissemination of their message to new adherents from all political parties; or if, on the contrary, they represent a compact network of actors within the same ideological spectrum, who share the same concern without going beyond their party preferences. To do this, a set of tweets and retweets were collected around the hashtag #VivirSinMiedo [#LiveWithoutFear] for further processing and analysis in graphs. The main findings include the existence of a compact network decentralized into three large sub-networks, which are basically made up of the proponents of the campaign on the one hand (hard core of political actors linked to the amendment campaign); a circle of party adherents, on the other hand; and another outer-circle of non-party adherents with weak ties to political actors. Despite the existence of independent “brokers” and replicators of information (journalists), the #VivirSinMiedo network does not do more than spread the campaign among “peers” (nodes that share political preferences), and its ability to expand towards new adherents is very restricted.