POLITICAL DEBATE IN THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM: CONTENT ANALYSIS AND CANDIDATE INTERACTION IN THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PRIMARIES (JULY 2018)

Abstract

This research highlights the importance of digital media as a place for meeting, debate and confrontation of ideas in the public political environment. The scene of the debates has clearly shifted from the world of traditional media to the digital ecosystem, a radical change. To this end, this document analyses the messages sent on the social network Twitter by the verified official accounts of the two candidates for the Presidency of the Popular Party: Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and Pablo Casado, during the time that has elapsed between the end of the first round of the primary elections and the second round, in which the aforementioned politicians were the candidates elected by the party bodies to dispute the succession of Mariano Rajoy. The methodology used is the content analysis of the publications of the 'SorayaPP' and 'Pablo Casado' accounts between 5 and 21 July 2018. The analysis focuses on the intentionality of the message and the multimedia content that accompanies it. The results obtained emphasize the impact of both policies on social networks, showing the representative values of these policies and the interest groups to which they are closest.