La prueba pericial caligráfica en el proceso judicial. Regulación y normativa de la figura

RQ 3.2: How does political engagement mediate the contributions of Facebook to political participation?

Political engagement and its measures are identified in the literature as important predictors of political participation. Their links with Facebook, Internet, and offline participation were assessed through a correlation analysis.

Table 15 – Political Participation and Political Engagement: Correlations Analysis – Spearman's rho Facebook Political Participation Internet Political Participation Offline Political Participation British Sample Political Engagement Correlation Coefficient .335** _.471** _.474** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 Political Interest Correlation Coefficient .465** _.580** _.557** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000

Partisanship Correlation Coefficient .211** _.220** _.261**

Sig. (2-tailed) .007 .003 .002 Political Knowledge Correlation Coefficient .312** _.457** _.420** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 External Political Efficacy Correlation Coefficient -.126 -.118 -.007 Sig. (2-tailed) .079 .100 .927 Internal Political Efficacy Correlation Coefficient .271** _.419** _.377** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 Italian Sample Political Engagement Correlation Coefficient .566** _.502** _.604** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 Political Interest Correlation Coefficient .509** _.513** _.562** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000

Partisanship Correlation Coefficient .447** _.394** _.454**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 Political Knowledge Correlation Coefficient .289** _.311** _.375** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 External Political Efficacy Correlation Coefficient .163* _{.087 .147}* Sig. (2-tailed) .023 .223 .040 Internal Political Efficacy Correlation Coefficient .268** _.243** _.309** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .001 .000

The correlation analysis indicated that:

 In the IS political engagement had a large correlation with Facebook, Internet and offline political participation, while in the BS it was only moderately correlated to these scales.

 In the BS the correlations between political engagement and Facebook political participation were lower than the ones between political engagement and Internet and offline political participation, a pattern which seemed to apply to all the considered measures of political engagement.

 When the various measures of political engagement were taken into account, in both samples political interest was the one consistently displaying the largest correlations with the considered political participation scales.

 The main differences between the two samples emerged in relation to partisanship and external political efficacy.

 With regards to external political efficacy, in the BS this measure displayed small and negative correlations with the three considered political participation scales. However, these correlations were not statistically significant. In the IS these correlations were slightly higher (i.e., small/moderate) but positive. In both samples, among the various measures of political engagement external political efficacy was the one displaying the smallest correlations.

 With respect to partisanship, the correlations found in the IS were larger (i.e., moderate) than the ones found in the BS (i.e., small). In the BS, this measure presented small correlations with the three considered scales of participation, while in the IS was moderately correlated to these measures.

The links between political participation and political engagement were further explored in the qualitative phase. Most of the quantitative findings are supported by qualitative data. The interviews confirmed that, among the various measures of political engagement, political interest was the most strongly and consistently linked to political participation. As stressed in Sections 5.1 and 5.2, politically interested individuals were the ones who participated the most across the three considered channels.

[Relevance of political interest]:

Alex – BP: “[My limited political participation is probably linked to the fact that] I am not very interested and … passionate about politics … I have a little bit of passion but not enough to parley my own.”

With regards to the other components of the political engagement index, political knowledge emerged as particularly relevant to political participation, as already highlighted in Section 5.1.2 (i.e., virtuous circle). In addition, political knowledge appeared to impact positively on individuals’ understanding of politics and confidence to participate politically (i.e., internal political efficacy). External political efficacy also seemed to influence participants’ levels of political participation not only on Facebook but also on the Internet and offline.

[Relevance of political knowledge and internal political efficacy]:

Andrew – BP: “I started becoming interested in politics very recently. So I still feel I have a lot to learn, so you know I’m not too active just now because I still feel that I’m learning.”

Helen – BP: “I’m aware of what I post in the sense that if I’m not really informed on a subject I will not comment until I know what I’m talking about in that sense, because if everyone can see I don’t want to look like a fool.”

Ellie – BP: “I feel I don’t have enough background knowledge to be able to discuss [politics], I would just end up rambling really … [I don’t participate politically because] I don’t have a strong opinion and I don’t feel I would be able to help out, to be honest.”

[Relevance of external political efficacy]:

Callum – BP: “When [the government] makes decisions that I disagree with, then by the time I’ve already found out about them they have already been made, I don’t think there is very much I can do about them.”

Alessandro – IP: “[I don’t participate in politics] – I don’t like it because [the government] is all talk but no action. Even with the financial crisis, they sad that they were going to cut this and that, but really they should cut their own wages. [They don’t care about people’s needs], they are only there to make money.”

With respect to the last measure composing the political engagement index, namely partisanship, the qualitative data contradicted in part the quantitative data, indicating partisanship as an important factor determining the contributions of Facebook to political participation. This applies not only to IPs, as the quantitative results suggested, but also to BPs, with participants involved in party politics also particularly active on this SNS.

[Relevance of partisanship]:

Rachel – BP: “I am member of the Greens and the Greens use Facebook to some extent to communicate internally. Although most of that internal communication goes off in private mailing lists, there is a public face of communication that’s from Facebook out to the world and so I do that.”

Antonio – IP: “[I work] for Rifondazione Comunista and [I deal] with immigration related issues. Therefore, for me politics is also a job… In this sense Facebook helped me a lot [as] I write for a series of online newspapers and circulate my articles through Facebook.”

Linked to partisanship is party affiliation which refers to the alliance to a specific party. The present research adopted a bottom-up approach in examining the contributions of Facebook to political participation, focusing on citizens rather than political institutions. Given this focus, the role of political parties or movements has been investigated only to a limited extent (a more detailed discussion of this issue can be found in Section 6.7). Given the samples’ composition, with certain parties under-represented in the samples (see Appendix C) and the way party affiliation has been operationalised (see Section 6.7), it is not clear how, in the context of this study, the alliance to specific political forces can mediate the contributions of Facebook to political participation. Nonetheless, qualitative data seemed to suggest that rather than the alliance to a specific political party, it is the degree of such an affiliation that matters in terms of political participation on Facebook. Among the interviewed participants, withthe exception of Hilary whose political activity on Facebook is limited due to concerns about the semi-public nature of this SNS (see Section 5.1.2), those who were active in party politics – regardless of the party – displayed the highest levels of Facebook political participation (see participants’ profiles in Appendix D). In this sense, the only notable difference emerged with regards to a participant affiliated to the M5S, a party that, as noted in Section 1.3, uses the Internet and SNSs as their key communication and mobilisation tools. This participant stressed the centrality of Facebook for the activities of the M5S, a finding which did not seem to apply to other political parties. Similarly, even if to a much lesser degree, in the BS affiliation to the political movement 38 Degrees appeared to be related to Facebook political participation.

[Relevance of affiliation to a party or movement]:

Giuliano – IP: “Four or five years ago the 5 Stars Movement started with people connecting through online platforms such as Meet Up. [At the time], Facebook was not so popular in Italy like it is today, so we started using the Meet Up platforms, then all the activity related to the discussion, the organisation of meetings and initiatives moved to Facebook.”

Alex – BP: “[Facebook] helped … to connect people with these big massive … programmes like this 38 Degrees, and I think that without Facebook I would have had less interaction with them.”

To recapitulate, political engagement and its measures (i.e., political interest, political knowledge, internal and external political efficacy, and partisanship) presented important links with political participation in general, and also with political participation carried out specifically through Facebook. In both samples political interest was the measure displaying the largest correlations with Facebook political participation, with qualitative data also confirming that politically interested individuals were the ones using Facebook the most for political purposes.

Partisanship also emerged as an important factor mediating the contributions of Facebook to political participation. While quantitative data indicated the relevance of this measure only for the IS, the qualitative phase suggested that a strong affiliation to a political party is positively related to the usage of Facebook for political participation for both IPs and BPs.

Likewise, political knowledge, internal and external political efficacy seemed to have a positive influence on political participation, even if to a lesser degree than political interest and partisanship. Among these three measures, political knowledge appeared to be the most relevant one.

The data did not offer a clear picture of the links between affiliation to specific political parties and political participation on Facebook. However, it seemed that, rather than the alliance to a specific political party, it is the degree of the affiliation that matters the most. The only notable exception was a participant affiliated to an Italian party, the M5S, for which Facebook is the most crucial political communication and organisational tool, and for whose supporters high levels of online political activities are typical.