SMS e aumento da participação nas eleições

Pesquisadores americanos das universidades de Princeton e de Michigan junto com o US Student Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) realizaram um estudo para avaliar o impacto das mobilizações via mensagem de texto na participação dos jovens nas eleições americanas de novembro de 2006. Na pesquisa, os investigadores enviavam SMS, que funcionavam como lembretes para os eleitores. O resultado demonstrou que as pessoas que receberam as mensagens de texto aumentaram em 4,2% a probabilidade de votar. No Grupo de pesquisa em Cibercidade, da UFBA, Júlio Valentim realiza, em seu doutorado, um estudo sobre mensagens de texto e participação política. Entretanto, a perspectiva de Júlio é um pouco diferente. Ele não trabalha com as influências das SMS somente no ato de votar, mas na participação civil cotidiana do cidadão.

Abaixo alguns trechos da matéria publicada no MobileActive.

"He study found that text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by 4.2 percentage points. This is an increase similar to "quality phone call" reminders but at a fraction of the cost, indicating that partisan and nonpartisan voter mobilization efforts need to urgently get on the mobile bandwagon.

On the day before the election in November 2006, researchers sent text message voting reminders to over 4,000 mobile phone numbers chosen at random from a pool of over 8,000 mostly young people who had completed voter registration applications.

After the election, participants were matched to voter records to determine if they had indeed voted in the election, and a sample was surveyed to gauge their reaction to the messages.

According to the fact sheet:

• Across the board, text message reminders increased the likelihood of an individual voting by 4.2 percentage points.

• Of the different messages tested, a short, to-the-point reminder was most effective, with a boost of nearly 5 percentage points.

• In a follow up survey, 59% of recipients reported that the reminder was helpful, versus only 23% who found it bothersome.

• Hispanics had especially positive feelings about the reminders.

• At just $1.56 per additional vote generated, text messaging was extremely cost effective in comparison to other methods.

Text messaging is, of course, the ideal medium for getting out the vote. According to data from the project, a quarter of Americans under the age of 25 used a mobile phone as their only telephone in the first half of 2006 with the mobile-only population is projected to reach nearly 30 percent of the entire American public by the 2008 Presidential election. Text messaging is already widely used among young people as a form of communication, making it an ideal vehicle for timely information."