Rocking the Vote in Mexico’s 2012 Presidential Election: Mexico’s Popular Music Scene’s Use of Social Media in a Post–Arab Spring Context
Abstract
This article examines the use of information and communication technologies and social networking sites by the movement Músicos con YoSoy132 in the lead-up to Mexico’s July 2012 presidential election. Much was at stake in this election, as the party that had ruled the country for seven decades through a semi-authoritarian regime was poised to regain power. Questions of free and fair elections, media bias, and voter participation were raised as disaffected youth and a supposedly apolitical music scene joined forces to impact the election. This article examines these events in a post–Arab Spring context that probes some of the assertions and conclusions made by communication scholars about recent happenings in the Middle East and North Africa.