Electoral campaigns and Twitter. The dissemination of media content in the digital environment

Abstract

During the last decades, social media have significantly transformed the field of political communication. Political parties and politicians have incorporated these platforms as a regular toolin their communication strategy. In turn, the mainstream media continues to play a key role in the political and social sphere. In this context marked by the coexistence between traditionalmedia andsocialmedia, politicalactors take advantage of the potential of both communication spaces to expand the dissemination of their message. This research examines the relationship between mass media and Twitter during the 2016 election campaign in Spain. The methodology combines the quantitative content analysis and the metric analysis on a sample of 8199 messages published by the four most voted political parties: PP, PSOE, Podemos andCiudadanos. The results confirm that parties take advantage of Twitter to amplify the impact of their interventions in mass media, being especially significantthe debate broadcaston television. This data reinforces the idea thatold andnew media coexist andcomplement eachother in a hybridcommunicative environment.