Líderes latinoamericanos en Twitter. Viejas costumbres para nuevos medios en tiempos de crisis políticas

Francisco Segado-Boj; Jesús  Díaz-Campo; Beatriz  Lloves-Sobrado

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2015-1040

Authors

Francisco Segado-Boj International University of La Rioja https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7750-3755
Jesús Díaz-Campo International University of La Rioja http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5014-8749
Beatriz Lloves-Sobrado International University of La Rioja http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7836-4643

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2015-1040

Keywords:

Social media, Twitter, civic dialogue, interactivity, political communication

Abstract

Twitter has evolved into an important medium for political communication. However, research on Twitter has focused almost exclusively on its use in electoral campaigns. Objectives. This article analyses the use that the main Latin American political leaders make of Twitter as a communication channel. Method. Content analysis was applied to 688 tweets posted by ten political leaders in two different time periods, one of them characterised by the attention paid by the media to a political scandal. The content analysis focused on identifying the different types of messages posted and the direction of their discourse. Results and conclusions. Based on this analysis, we concluded that there is still no common strategy to use Twitter in times of crisis among the Latin American political leaders in the government and the opposition.

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Author Biographies

Francisco Segado-Boj, International University of La Rioja

Francisco Segado-Boj holds a B.A. Degree in Journalism and a Ph.D. Degree in Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid. He is an Associate Professor at the International University of La Rioja, where he coordinates the doctoral programme in“Knowledge Society and Action in the fields of Education, Communication, Rights and New Technologies”.

Former research fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid and visiting scholar at the University of Central Lancashire. Currentdirector of the “Communication and Digital society” (COYSODI) research group. His work focuses on the communication models used on the Internet and audiovisual media (especially television and graphic humour).

He is the author of the book titled Un país de chiste(Rialp, 2012) and has coordinated several collective works. He has also posted more than dozen articles in scientific journals such as Historia Crítica, Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, Zer, Historia y Comunicación Social, Comunicación y Sociedad and Hispania, among others.

Jesús Díaz-Campo, International University of La Rioja

Jesús Díaz-Campo holds B.A. Degree in Journalism and Ph.D. Degree in Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid. He received a teacher training scholarship from the Ministry of Education and Culture. He completed research stays at the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of TampereUniversity (Finland) and the headquarters of the EuropeanJournalism Training Association (Tilburg, Netherlands) and the EuropeanJournalism Centre (Maastricht, Netherlands).

Associate Professor at the School of Business and Communication of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), where he teaches several subjects since 2011. He has also taught at the Complutense University of Madrid (as FPU research fellow) and the Comillas Pontifical University.

Member of the Communication and Digital Society (COYSODI) research group of the International University of la Rioja.

His main lines of research focus on communication ethics, political communication and social networks, and radio and television.

He is the author of more than twenty book chapters and articles posted in important journals (Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, Zer, Historia y Comunicación Social, Telos, Palabra Clave, Observatorio, cuadenos.info, Razón y Palabra, Anagramas, Tercer Milenio, EstudosemComunicação, Icono 14, Vivat Academia, Etic@net o Moralia, among others).

He has also participated in several research projects, whose funding was obtained through public competitive bidding.

Beatriz Lloves-Sobrado, International University of La Rioja

Beatriz Lloves-Sobrado holds a Ph.D. Degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Vigo (2012). She has posted several articles including: “La publicidad en el diario Arco en el último periodo de la guerra civil (1938-1939)” (“Advertising in the Arco newspaper in the last period of the civil war (1938-1939)”); ”La Constitución Europea: influencia de la campaña institucional en el referéndum del 20 de febrero de 2007” (“The European Constitution: influence of the institutional campaign in the referendum of 20 February 2007”); and “La mujer a través de la comunicación, aspectos culturales e imagen publicitaria” (“Women through communication, cultural aspects and advertising image”),which was funded by the Caixanova Professorship in feminist studies.

She has also collaborated on research project on Human rights and print press in La Voz de Galicia, coordinated by the Complutense University of Madrid. This work was presented by the Citizenry and Values Foundation in La Coruña and Madrid. It was the first report in Europe on Human rights and written press.

Former co-director of the 1stInternational Congress of “Communication and Digital society” held in Madrid in 2013 by the “Communication and Digital society” (COYSODI) research group, of which she is part since 2012.

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