Citizen perspectives and digital mediations on socio-environmental conflicts in Peru

It has been interpreted that legal mining is the main source of socio-environmental conflicts and therefore generates rejection in the population, among other economic, political, legal and cultural reasons. However, some measures recently applied by the current government and the threat of suspending important mining projects for the national economy have generated currents of opinion in favor of such investments. The objective of this research is social and communicative: it seeks to identify the attitudes of citizens towards the most relevant mining activities and conflicts that will have repercussions in 2022. Through a study of mixed scope -based on surveys, virtual ethnography and the Analysis of Social Networks (ARS)- it is about identifying the perspectives of the public -and even their level of commitment- about the mining activity through a questionnaire, as well as in the comments that they pour in online media and influential platforms, in response to the information that is disseminated on these matters. From communication, and recognizing the weight that news has in the formation of public opinion, the work believes it is possible to also analyze the coincidences and differences of the public and media agendas on an issue that threatens healthy coexistence among Peruvians.

After the installation of a leftist government in Peru, it is considered pertinent to study from a social and communicative perspective the attitudes, as well as the approach or frame (Entman, 1993) of the citizens on the mining activity, the main engine of the Peruvian economy. and to which the origin of socio-environmental conflicts is attributed (De Echave, 2021), one of the most serious problems that afflict the country (Ombudsman, 2021). The investigation is based on the current social and political context that Peru is experiencing, after the closure of relevant mining investments and the protest demonstrations carried out in Lima and in other regions of Peru in support of the Las Bambas mining project that, initially , is seen as a case to be analyzed in this project.

The concept of citizenship in Peru and in the world is undergoing a kind of redefinition. Previous studies reveal that today's citizens are critical, self-expressive and anti-hierarchical; they connect to political issues at their own pace and time; and they monitor the information they require within a variety of options (Deuze 2008) to take a position on public issues.
For this reason, it is worth asking whether this informative opening has made it easier for Peruvians to become more aware, on the one hand, of the great inequalities that exist in the country (Vergara, 2020) and one of the causes of the current conflict (Miñan, 2021; Chacón, 2021; Ombudsman, 2021; Pereda, 2020). On the other hand, it seeks to verify if it recognizes responsibilities and, above all, solutions to this serious problem in a multinational and intercultural country, where the absence of the State is ostensible in a large part of the national territory (Kymlicka 1996; Tubino, 2004). In other words, analyze their attitudes and frames, understood as the approaches that are born from the recognition of the diagnosis of a situation, its responsible parties and solutions (Entman, 1993).
It has been found that citizens value conflicts based on the role played by victims and perpetrators (Mendoza-Michilot, 2021). One question is how much their approaches and subjectivities weigh on the problem and how much the information they receive from the news platforms to assume a reasoned position, despite the divorce that usually separates the agendas of the public and the agenda of digital or hybrid media (Newman , and others, 2021; Martín-Barbero, 1987; McCombs, 2006; Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2013; Carazo, 2018; Mendoza, Viaña, & Espinoza, 2019).

This work continues a line of study developed at IDIC on the study of citizenship and social conflicts from the perspective of traditional and social media. The proposal presented on this occasion focuses on citizens and their commitment to a decisive issue for the national economy.