Understanding Social Media Use in Latin America

Abstract

Social media use is increasingly popular worldwide. Yet little is known about what shapes social media use, particularly in developing regions of the world. This research project seeks to elucidate the determinants of so cial media use in eight contiguous Latin American countries from Mexico to Colombia using the Latin American Public Opinion Project 2012 survey data. Social media use for the purposes of advocating a political position is employed as the dependent variable with a series of individual-level characteristics included as independent variables. The results of the mul tinomial regression model explicates the determinants of social media use for gathering and/or disseminating political information as more able and interested individuals employ those media than their less able and/or interested counterparts. The results depart from prior research focused on general Internet use for news gathering as perceptions of the domestic new media industry do not impact social media use of this kind.