Evaluation of the Use of The Internet and Social Media Platforms in the Electoral Campaigns for the Legislative Elections of March 2016 in Cabo Verde

Abstract:

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate and describe the opinion of a group of Cabo Verdeans on the use of internet and digital social media platforms by political parties / candidates in the legislative elections held in March 2016, focusing on the use of strategy political digital marketing to communicate / interact and persuade voters. To achieve this purpose, a quantitative - descriptive research was used, using the structured electronic questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The sampling typology used was non-probabilistic, for convenience and accessibility, and the sample of 131 elements consisted of the participants' voluntary adherence to the questionnaire that was available during the month of June 2016 on the Google form platform. The results revealed that “Facebook”, “online newspaper sites” and “viber”, were the digital channels pointed out by the participants as having been more important in bringing candidates closer to voters and at the same time showing satisfaction in the way they were used. In general, only 10.1% of the subjects surveyed stated that they had been influenced by the content conveyed or actions developed on the internet /digital media plataforms, with the items “publications of opinion articles made by policy experts”, “Publication with answer / argument from candidates on facebook”, “publication with answer / argument on the websites of the parties”, were those that had the highest score of influence in the vote.