A study carried out by Brazil Panel revealed Brazilians’ perceptions about the use of platforms during the election period
This year, Brazilians will have to choose their mayors, deputy mayors and councilors in the Municipal Elections and, increasingly, politicians have been using social media as a tool to communicate with their voters, present proposals, deny fake news and provoke opponents.
Based on this fact, Brazil Panels launched a survey that shows the opinion of Brazilians on the role of social networks in the dissemination of information and news.
According to the data, more than 90% of the population considers social networks as “fundamental” in this sense, with 50.7% placing them at the level of “very” important, 39.5% as “important”, 7.4% as “neutral” and only 2.3% seeing them as “somewhat” or “not at all” important.
In the context of the mayoral election, more than 76% of those interviewed consider social networks to be important factors in political campaigns and only 10% see them as “not very” or “not at all” important.
In addition to the strategic use of social media by politicians, people have also been increasingly using social media to find out about candidates. According to the survey, 69.6% of Brazilians consider the medium to be effective for this purpose, compared to 15.5% who believe it is “somewhat” or “not at all” effective and 14.9% who were neutral.
Based on the data collected, Claudio Vasques, CEO of Brazil Panels and Conexão Vasques, believes that social media has a considerable impact on changing votes. While 52% of the population says they will not change their voting intention based on social media, 47.5% say they have already chosen another candidate based on what they saw online.
