Political Communication and Emerging Strategies in Digital Electoral Campaigns during the COVID-19 Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2022.25.1.6Keywords:
Political communication, Covid-19, elections, social media, TwitterAbstract
COVID-19 has been changing politics, especially during election periods when the search for votes intensifies. The influenza pandemic of 1918 (misnamed Spanish flu) not only had impacted the development of electoral campaigns but also forever changed the pillars of political communication. This article seeks to analyze the trends in the first election campaigns held during COVID-19 that could, as happened in 1918, constitute a new stage of digital political communication. The elections to the Galician Parliament in 2020 are discussed. Methodological triangulation is used with the following data extraction and analysis techniques: 1) systematic literature review; 2) content analysis of websites and digital resources used by the parties in social networks; 3) interviews with journalists who covered the campaign in radio, press, television, news agencies, and digital media. Twitter was also monitored because it has become one of the main means of political communication during electoral campaigns. The results show an intense search for citizen presence and engagement through new message control strategies.
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