abstract
- Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Fear of being a possible crime victim causes less social integration. Therefore it directly affects social capital. The mass media may cause a rise in fear of crime when local news involves violence. Nowadays social networks are becoming an alternative channel for any kind of news. In Monterrey, social networks were used to warn Monterrey citizens about contingency measures when natural disasters and security issues happened in the city. The objective of this investigation was to explore the impact of the quantity and frequency of negative messages that are published through Facebook in the perception of Monterrey's social capital. Results show that the most negative topics shared are insecurity and corruption, and politics. Only a 4.2% of participants think that most (more than 50%) of messages received by social networks are negatives. Finally, results found that the exposure to negative messages in social networks has a significant but weak correlation with some social capital dimensions.