Unidirectionality, partisan promotion and polarization. Activity on Twitter of the candidates for the presidency of the Government of Spain in the 2019 general elections

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use of Twitter by the candidates for the presidency of the Government of Spain of the five main parties at the national level -PSOE, PP, Vox, Podemos, and Ciudadanos- during the general elections campaigns held in April and November 2019. The main purpose of this study is to determine the strategies regarding the use of the microblogging network by the leaders, in terms of activity, interaction, and fame, and in terms of topics and discursive development, as well as their similarities and differences. The secondary objective is to study the evolution of these strategies both between the two campaigns and with respect to previous elections. To this end, this research is based on a content analysis methodology that studies quantitative, qualitative, and discursive elements. The results reveal an uneven use of Twitter in terms of frequency of updates, but similar in terms of its unidirectionality, with scarce interaction with other users and a predominance of tweets with their own content over retweets. The dissemination of other people´s content was used almost entirely to promote the candidate´s political party and, to a lesser extent, to interact with journalists. Dialog with citizens was almost always residual, both in retweets and in responses. This utilitarian conception of the microblogging network was accompanied by a polarizing thematic selection, with an almost general preponderance of political over policy issues.