David Rincon
Research Mentor(s): Nicholas Valentino
Mentor Department: Political Science
Authors: Francy Luna Diaz
Session: Session 4 (1:00pm – 1:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 112
Abstract
Online political misinformation has affected voting behavior for years now and may have an effect on the Hispanic voting demographic, as Hispanic/Latinx people, according to the National Health Institute, are among the least educated groups in the United States, and may look primarily towards social media/opinions of others for guidance over reputable news sources. This study was undertaken to examine how Hispanic voting behavior was being swayed by online misinformation, specifically what direction it took Hispanics in with political parties, national and foreign affairs, economic issues, and overall opinion on the government. Findings were collected via interviews and data exported from Telegram political group chats. The open ended survey questions were hand-coded as well as the interviews using an application called Dedoose. The results so far show that the voting behavior of Hispanics can be linked to transnational ties and participation in online communities, making them more susceptible to group-specific misinformation. This misinformation then results in less democratic values being shared along with the belief that socialism is increasing in the United States and finally more trust in Trump’s policies
