Network-Actor Critical Media Literacy and Political Activism in the Era of the Fiscal Oversight Board in Puerto Rico

Abstract

The great proliferation of social networks on digital platforms within the media ecosystem has led some authors to believe that these have become significant spaces for political mobilization among young people (Bennett, 2008; Kaun et al., 2016; Rubio, 2010; Sorj & Fausto 2016). However, others question the effectiveness of these mobilizations as acts of political agency (Torres Nabel, 2011). Meanwhile, many educators argue that mastering critical media literacy skills is necessary for truly effective social and political activism (Ashley et al., 2017; Mihailidis, 2009). This article discusses the results of a survey conducted in Puerto Rico between October and December 2018 on the relationship between critical media literacy skills and other characteristics of a group of 155 university students (aged 21 to 30) who use digital networks, conceptualized as network-actors according to Bruno Latour's (2005) framework, and their levels of political activism during the initial period of the implementation of a Fiscal Oversight Board by the U.S. Congress on the island. The data were subjected to a binary logistic regression test. The findings suggest that although a significant positive relationship was found between media literacy and a type of political activism known as slacktivism (Morosov, 2009), the statistical probability of predicting whether another student with the same skill set will also exhibit the same type of activism is only moderate.