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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/122344 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications An ethnography of Facebook and the production of values in a political campaign. A study of the use of Facebook for the 2014 Frente Amplio national elections in Uruguay. By Esteban Damiani A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies University of Warwick, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies. Supervisors Professor Celia Lury Associate Professor Nathaniel Tkacz 5 July 2018. iv Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Epigraph ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Section 1 – Research questions and the object of study .............................................................. 3 Section 2 – Thesis structure ........................................................................................................... 7 Section 3 – Research scope and contributions .............................................................................. 9 Chapter 1 – Understanding the use of Facebook and Frente Amplio in Uruguay .................. 12 Epigraph ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 16 Section 1 – Contextualising the political campaign in Uruguay ................................................... 17 1.1 - A unique democracy in the Latin American region ................................................. 17 1.2 - Frente Amplio: the crystallisation of a left-wing coalition ...................................... 20 1.3 - The 2014 national elections and the ossification of a political structure ............... 24 Section 2 – Introducing Facebook ................................................................................................ 27 2.1.1 - Facebook 2004 - 2014: An unsettled giant .......................................................... 27 2.1.2 - Facebook as a valuable service ............................................................................ 33 2.2 - Facebook affordances for the creation of publics .................................................. 34 2.2.1 - Personal Profile Pages .......................................................................................... 35 2.2.2 - Group Pages ......................................................................................................... 36 2.2.3 - Event Pages .......................................................................................................... 37 2.2.4 - Fan Pages .............................................................................................................. 38 Section 3 – Facebook and the 2014 national elections ............................................................... 39 3.1 - Facebook: a platform for broadening opportunities .............................................. 42 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 44 Chapter 2 – Literature Review. Understanding previous approaches to online publics in political campaigns....................................................................................................................... 47 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 47 v Section 1 – Defining online publics for the analysis of value production .................................... 49 1.1 - Social media, big data and Social Network Sites ..................................................... 49 1.2 - Productive Public and value creation ...................................................................... 58 1.3 - Facebook as a space for measuring the public ....................................................... 64 Section 2 – Productive Publics and political campaigns: a different dynamic in public involvement and political communication ................................................................................... 69 2.1 - The 2008 Obama campaign: a milestone in political communication .................... 69 2.2 - SNS as political marketing tools for measuring the public ...................................... 74 2.3 - Online media and populism .................................................................................... 76 2.4 - Collective Identity and alternative forms of political participation ........................ 80 Section 3 – Defining the process of valuation ............................................................................. 83 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 91 Chapter 3 – Methodology. Designing an ethnographic approach .............................................. 98 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 98 Section 1 – Designing a strategy and defining the object of study: an ethnographic approach to follow valuation practices ..................................................................................... 100 Section 2 – The specificities of data collection and its results ................................................... 107 Section 3 – Ethical considerations of participant-observation in a political campaign on Facebook ................................................................................................................................... 114 Conclusions – Reflecting on the scope, limitations and benefits of the ethnographic results 116 Chapter 4 – Multiple forms of value in a political campaign .............................................. 119 Epigraph ..................................................................................................................................... 119 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 119 Section 1 – Multiple forms of value ........................................................................................... 122 1.1.1 - Building up a news channel for a national campaign......................................... 122 1.1.2 - Promoting the FA campaign on the news .......................................................... 124 1.2 - The value of Facebook for professional campaigners: information management, paid advertisement and professional services .......................................................................... 127 1.3 - Free advertisement for commercial value: an undesirable intervention .............. 132 1.4 - Moral values .......................................................................................................... 134 1.5 - Networks for Constanza Moreira: an alternative project inside the FA ................ 136 vi Section 2 – Account Centred Value: analysing a dynamic of value production in a multivalent medium ...................................................................................................................................... 144 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 147 Chapter 5 – Audit Culture and the use of metrics in a professional campaign .................... 151 Epigraph ..................................................................................................................................... 151 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 152 Section 1 – Understanding the public character of metrics for the FA campaign ..................... 154 Section 2 – Making valuations and decisions possible in an audit culture ................................ 160 2.1 – The popularisation of audit culture ...................................................................... 168 Section 3 – Metrics’ performativity and multiple agencies in professional practices ............... 172 3.1 – Building a public to excel in an audit culture ....................................................... 173 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 176 Chapter 6 – Negotiating values on Facebook Groups ........................................................ 180 Epigraph ..................................................................................................................................... 180 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................