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Cómo citar
Fresno García, Miguel del y James Daly, Alan (2019). «Límites para la comunicación política desde
las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet. Un caso de estudio: de La casta a La trama». Revista
Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 165: 65-82. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.165.65)
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
66 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 67
petencia por la atención, como recurso tema, 1995: 7). El motor ideológico era «la
escaso (del-Fresno, 2017), ha provocado una innovación, la creatividad y la democracia»
reorganización sistémica de la comunicación (Lessig, 2001: 12), que debían garantizar la
interpersonal colectiva retando las catego- evolución de Internet dentro del ideario de-
rías principales del pensamiento tradicional mocrático «como una plataforma abierta que
sobre la comunicación de masas (Chaffee y permitiría a todas las personas, en todas par-
Metzger, 2001). tes, compartir información, tener acceso a
Debido al crecimiento de la penetración oportunidades y colaborar más allá de lími-
social de Internet, movimientos sociales, tes geográficos y culturales» (Berners-Lee,
partidos políticos, instituciones, ONG, etc., 2017).
han entendido en todo el mundo a estas El discurso heredado desde los orígenes
grandes plataformas como un nuevo canal de Internet fue generalizando la idea de los
para generar, compartir y fomentar la inte- efectos positivos para la diversidad de la
racción con sus audiencias, adaptando la agenda pública (Barlow, 1996) —como si la
tecnología a sus objetivos y estrategia. Las variable que explicara y facilitara esa diversi-
investigaciones sobre la relación entre suje- dad residiese en el mero acceso a Internet y
tos políticos y los medios sociales han teni- la multiplicidad de canales existentes—. Lo
do un amplio seguimiento desde los inicios que supone una asunción acrítica de la tec-
de Internet (Davis y Owen, 1998; Davis, nología libre de sesgos, cuando toda tecno-
1999). Así, se ha destacado la importancia logía tiene la intencionalidad, los prejuicios,
del uso de los medios sociales con fines de la ideología y las limitaciones de sus creado-
relación, participación, protesta o compe- res (Ekström, 2015). Toda tecnología lleva
tencia política (Choi et al., 2017; Valenzuela implícito en sí misma, como innovación, su
et al., 2016; Gordon y Perugini, 2016; Bui, propio accidente y su potencial efecto catas-
2016; Hong y Kim, 2016; González-Bailón y trófico (Virilio, 1995), que ha ido siendo mos-
Wang, 2016; Boulianne, 2015; Barnidge, trado por los investigadores (Halpern et al.,
2015; Aharony, 2012; Budak, 2010), sobre el 2017; Schneider et al., 2017; Brooks y Califf,
tipo de contenidos o estilos de comunica- 2017; Brown y Tiggemann, 2016; Turkle,
ción más usados para la comunicación po- 2015; Myrick, 2015).
lítica (Åström y Karlsson, 2016; Nulti et al., En su intersección con la política, el acci-
2016; Rahimi, 2015; Bimber, 2014; Kreiss, dente también existe y las grandes platafor-
2014; Stieglitz et al., 2012), sobre los meca- mas sociales en Internet, como Facebook,
nismos de propagación de los mensajes están siendo investigadas por su influencia
(Greenwood et al., 2016; Teresi y Michel- en los resultados en la elección presidencial
son, 2015; DiGrazia et al., 2013; Stieglitz y de los Estados Unidos o en el referéndum del
Dang-Xuan, 2013) o las formas de presen- brexit de 2016, donde «Facebook ha contri-
tación y autopresentación política (Collian- buido, y se ha beneficiado, de la erosión de
der et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017). las normas democráticas en los Estados Uni-
La arquitectura de Internet fue diseñada dos y en otros lugares». Investigadores del
en sus orígenes por científicos y hackers de Oxford Internet Institute han rastreado «ejér-
forma abierta, descentralizada y horizontal citos de voluntarios y bots activos a través
como un proyecto «simple y grandioso, para de Facebook y Twitter para socavar la con-
conectar todos los ordenadores del mundo fianza en la democracia o para facilitar la
y, en consecuencia, todos sus usuarios» elección de sus candidatos preferidos en
(Huitema, 1995: 34) con la convicción de que Filipinas, India, Francia, Países Bajos, Gran
Internet «tendría un impacto decisivo sobre Bretaña y otros lugares» (Vaidhyanathan,
la ciencia, la sociedad y la civilización» (Hui- 2017), o como el modelo publicitario de Fa-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
68 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 69
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
70 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 71
res, se encontrase alguna de las palabras Además, crece la tasa de viralización (ret-
claves mencionadas de E1 y E2 y así de- weets) entre E2 y E1 en 9,6 puntos porcen-
limitar los climas de opinión. tuales, pasando del 78% a un 87,5%. La tasa
de dependencia total de Facebook-Twitter
dentro de los medios sociales crece casi 8
Análisis y resultados puntos, lo que muestra una creciente con-
centración duopolística de ambas platafor-
La elección de las metáforas en la comuni- mas en la intermediación de contenidos y
cación política afecta a las expectativas de significados, pasando de un 90% a un 98%
las audiencias y, en función de ellas, su in- del total del volumen.
tencionalidad y significados alcanzan a dife-
Hay tres posibles explicaciones a la me-
rentes capas sociales, grupos o individuos.
nor difusión, notoriedad e impacto en los
Las grandes plataformas sociales en Inter-
medios sociales de E2:
net, junto a los medios profesionales tradi-
cionales, se han visto obligados tanto a una
hibridación con los medios sociales como a 1) Un menor atractivo o interés de E2 para
una cohabitación competitiva e interdepen- la agenda colectiva debido a sus signifi-
diente, creando un nuevo ecosistema infor- cados, intencionalidad, carga política o
mativo y modificando la comunicación inter- contenidos simbólicos, como se analiza
personal colectiva alrededor de la difusión más adelante.
de la agenda publica, jugando un rol de in- 2) Las audiencias de los medios sociales
termediación muy significativo, como mues- habrían experimentado una menor expo-
tran los datos obtenidos (tabla 1). sición a E2 debido: 1) a la generación de
El análisis de los datos de los medios so- menor atención mostrado por un menor
ciales muestra como muy significativa la re- volumen total (-93%) junto a un menor
ducción del peso de Facebook, pasando de número de publicaciones medias diarias
E1 con un 18% a E2 con un 2,7%, a pesar (-88%), y 2) al posible efecto de la perso-
de que en E2 el protagonismo de Podemos nalización o filtrado algorítmico de Face-
y sus líderes como emisores, como muestran book, puesto que a pesar de que los im-
los datos (gráfico 2), fue intenso. Esta con- pulsores de E2 utilizaron este medio
tracción de Facebook no puede explicarse activamente, la tasa de Facebook sobre
causalmente por el menor tiempo de activi- el volumen total de los medios sociales
dad de E2, un -40%, puesto que la media de cae de E1 a E2 desde un 18,1% al 2,5%
publicaciones diarias es aún mayor en su (15,4 puntos), un -99% en volumen total
caída, un -88%. y un -98% en volumen medio diario. La
hipótesis del efecto filtrado de Facebook
El algoritmo de Twitter —centrado en pro-
provocando una significativa menor visi-
vocar la alteración del orden de presentación
bilidad a E2 que a E1 y, por tanto, restrin-
de los contenidos y no en determinar, como
giendo su notoriedad no es posible corro-
sí hace el de Facebook, qué debe o no ser
borarla o falsarla debido a la opacidad del
presentado a cada usuario— no parece ha-
mismo algoritmo de Facebook, y
ber afectado negativamente a E2. La tasa de
Twitter sobre el volumen total de los medios 3) Ambas explicaciones previas podrían ser
sociales crece de E1 a E2 del 72% al 95,5% ciertas pero enfrentadas a la misma limi-
tación.
—favorecido por la contracción de Facebook
en parte— y la media de publicaciones dia-
rias de Twitter cae en menor medida, un El análisis del impacto en los medios profe-
84%, ya que la media total es de un -88%. sionales tradicionales muestra también una
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
72 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
Medios sociales
Medios profesionales
Volumen medios profesionales 46.121 1.155 -97%
% medios profesionales 6,7% 2,4% -4,3
Medios profesionales únicos 934 262 -72%
Media publicaciones/día 131 5 -96%
Media menciones/medio 49 4 -91%
Volumen medio profesional 1 3.787 69 -98%
Volumen medio profesional 2 2.291 35 -98%
Volumen medio profesional 3 2.117 28 -99%
Volumen medio profesional 4 1.525 27 -98%
% medio profesional 1 8,2% 6,0% -2,2
% medio profesional 2 5,0% 3,0% -2
% medio profesional 3 4,6% 2,4% -2,2
% medio profesional 4 3,3% 2,3% -1
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Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 73
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74 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
significativa menor tasa de atención a E2 que podrían haber optado por no extender o
a E1. Así, el volumen total cae un -97% de limitar la atención de forma táctica a E2.
E1 a E2, lo que limita la difusión del enmar-
cado propuesto y una menor capacidad de
influencia a la hora de establecer nuevas re- Discusión y conclusiones
laciones de definición desde la agenda de
El análisis de contenidos de los dos enmar-
Podemos. De igual forma, las menciones
cados de estudio permite acceder en mayor
diarias medias en medios profesionales caen
profundidad a sus significados. En E1 (gráfi-
de forma muy significativa un -96% entre E1
co 1), a excepción de «Pablo Iglesias» y en
y E2. Esto tiene dos posibles explicaciones:
menor medida «Pedro Sánchez» o «Rajoy»,
todos los sujetos identificados son colecti-
1) Un menor interés para los medios profe- vos («ahorapodemos», «gente», «partido» o
sionales de los enmarcados propuestos «partidos», «psoe», «podemos», «gobierno»,
en E2 después de su momento de nove- «pp», «ciudadanos», «políticos», «congreso»,
dad con su presentación y lanzamiento «personas») que actúan como una red de no-
(gráfico 4) tiene un recorrido más limitado dos descentralizados facilitando su difusión
y por notoriedad. De igual manera se infiere
2) Un potencial aprendizaje desde los me- que E1 no tuvo un significado unívoco o uni-
dios profesionales, ya que si contribuye- direccional —como sí sucede con E2—, sino
ron a amplificar y extender E1 (gráfico 3), múltiple y abierto. En E1 ni los usos ni los
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Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 75
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76 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, Enero - Marzo 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García y Alan James Daly 77
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78 Límites para la comunicación política desde las grandes plataformas sociales de Internet
mas sociales de Internet —por medio de al- significativa pérdida de la privacidad, algo
goritmos opacos en constante evolución y que ya objetivó el fundador de Facebook,
fuera de toda supervisión pública—. Existen Mark Zuckerberg, en 2010, al afirmar que
distintas líneas de interés para los investiga- «la privacidad ya no es una norma social»
dores: 1) todo filtrado supone la amplifica- (Johnson, 2010; Barnett, 2010).
ción, restricción o anulación de la visibilidad La mayor limitación para el conocimiento
pública de ciertos contenidos, lo que supone científico se deriva de la opacidad, falta de
una forma de expropiación tácita de las de- transparencia y ausencia de control demo-
cisiones libres de los ciudadanos; 2) las crático no solo sobre los algoritmos, que han
grandes plataformas están creando una rela- impuesto de forma unilateral las grandes pla-
ción previa inexistente entre sujetos y su taformas en Internet, sino sobre las conse-
comportamiento a través de la construcción cuencias finales de la captura masiva de
vía código de yoes algorítmicos que son una datos privados individuales de comporta-
suerte de identidad autocumplida, ya que miento y de la denominada personalización
«nosotros no sabemos quién creen que so- de los resultados. Para avanzar en la línea de
mos y cómo utilizan esa información» (Pari- la presente investigación es necesario el se-
ser, 2011: 216); 3) la creciente privatización y guimiento exhaustivo, con herramientas tec-
concentración oligopólica global de poder nológicas, de un alto número de campañas
definicional de estas plataformas con la ca- de comunicación sociales y políticas en me-
pacidad de condicionar y limitar las condi- dios sociales y profesionales a lo largo del
ciones de posibilidad mismas de la agenda tiempo para poder analizar, comprender y
global y nacional, y 4) cómo los causantes de describir la lucha por establecer las relacio-
estos nuevos riesgos son los mismos que los nes de definición en la agenda pública y eva-
evalúan como inexistentes o, incluso, son luar el impacto y consecuencias de los filtra-
reenmarcados como beneficios, como suce- dos algorítmicos de las mismas.
de con la metáfora de la «personalización».
Otra línea de gran interés e impacto es
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RECEPCIÓN: 31/10/2017
REVISIÓN: 14/02/2018
APROBACIÓN: 05/04/2018
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doi:10.5477/cis/reis.165.65
Citation
Fresno García, Miguel del and James Daly, Alan (2019). “Limits for the political communication
through large online platforms: from The caste to The plot”. Revista Española de Investigaciones
Sociológicas, 165: 65-82. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.165.65)
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
66 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 67
Due to the growth of the social penetra- The discourse inherited from the origins
tion of the Internet, social movements, polit- of the Internet generalised the idea that it had
ical parties, institutions, NGOs, etc., have positive effects for the diversity of the public
understood these large global platforms as agenda (Barlow, 1996)—as if the variable that
new channels to generate, share and foster explained and facilitated this diversity resid-
interaction with their audiences, adapting ed in merely accessing the Internet and the
technology to their own goals and strategies. multiplicity of existing channels—. This was
Abundant research has been conducted on based on an uncritical assumption that tech-
the relationship between political subjects nology is bias-free; however, all technology
and social media since the early days of the has the same intentions, prejudices, ideology
Internet (Davis and Owen, 1998; Davis 1999). and limitations of its creators (Ekström,
Some areas covered include the importance 2015). All technology carries in itself, as an
of the use of social media for relations, par- innovation, its own accident and its potential
ticipation, protest and political competition catastrophic effect (Virilio, 1995) that has
(Choi et al., 2017; Valenzuela et al., 2016; been shown by researchers (Halpern et al.,
Gordon and Perugini, 2016; Bui, 2016; Hong 2017; Schneider et al., 2017; Brooks and
and Kim, 2016; González-Bailón and Wang, Califf, 2017; Brown and Tiggemann, 2016;
2016; Boulianne, 2015; Barnidge, 2015; Aha- Turkle, 2015; Myrick, 2015).
rony, 2012; Budak, 2010); the type of con- At its intersection with politics, the acci-
tent or communication styles most used for dent also exists, and the large social plat-
political communication (Åström and Karls- forms on the Internet, such as Facebook,
son, 2016; Nulti et al., 2016; Rahimi, 2015; are being investigated for their influence on
Bimber, 2014; Kreiss, 2014; Stieglitz et al., the results in the US presidential election
2012); the mechanisms of message propa- and in the 2016 Brexit referendum, where
gation (Greenwood et al., 2016; Teresi and Facebook contributed to, and benefited
Michelson, 2015; DiGrazia et al., 2013; Stieg- from, the erosion of democratic rules in the
litz and Dang-Xuan, 2013); and forms of United States and elsewhere. Researchers
presentation and political self-presentation at the Oxford Internet Institute have tracked
(Colliander et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017). “armies of volunteers and bots as they move
The Internet’s architecture was originally propaganda across Facebook and Twitter in
designed by scientists and hackers in an efforts to undermine trust in democracy or
open, decentralised, horizontal way. It was to elect their preferred candidates in the
conceived of as a simple and grand project Philippines, India, France, the Netherlands,
to connect all the computers in the world Britain and elsewhere” (Vaidhyanathan,
and, consequently, all of its users (Huitema, 2017), as well as how Facebook’s adverti-
1995: 34), with the conviction that the Inter- sing model and the amount of personal data
net would have a decisive impact on science, available to it can be used to alter the de-
society and civilisation (Huitema, 1995: 7). mocratic process (Kuper, 2017; Marichal,
The ideological engine was “innovation, 2012).
creativity and democracy” (Lessig, 2001: 12), Proof of this is how the EU has fined Goo-
which should ensure that the Internet would gle for its abuse of dominance and the mani-
develop within a democratic ideology as an pulation of search results (Boffey, 2017; Yun-
“open platform that would allow everyone, Chee, 2017); as well as both Google and
everywhere to share information, access op- Facebook for “violating European consumer
portunities and collaborate across geogra- data protection standards and business
phic and cultural boundaries” (Berners-Lee, competition laws” (Vaidhyanathan, 2017).
2017). The question is to what extent the evolution
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
68 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 69
The same practice has been engaged in nection between language and social per-
by Twitter since March 2016, with its algorith- ceptions around the real situation of the
mic timeline (Oremus, 2017). This has resul- country across different layers of society.
ted in tweets no longer appearing in the chro- That is, they activated the connection be-
nological order in which they are published tween politics and society. With E1, Podem-
by users, as had happened since its incep- os rearranged social discourse, not only
tion in 2006; instead, Twitter accorded itself among their followers and sympathisers,
the power to define the order of how they but managed to have it accepted in the
were presented. The argument used by Twit- agenda of the media, the users of social me-
ter is that the algorithm gives what “people dia—both for and against Podemos—and,
most want to see” (Kantrowitz, 2016). surprisingly, also by their political rivals.
The E2 frames came from Podemos’
Podemos: language, framing and
fourth year, when they emerged as the third
political communication.
party in Spain after the 2015 general election
This study addresses two of the emblematic repeated in 2016, with a failed arithmeti-
communication campaigns by Podemos: the cal-electoral alliance with Izquierda Unida
caste and the citizens (E1) and the conspira- that blurred supposed across-the-board ide-
cy and the conspiracy bus (E2). ology to position it as a classic Marxist party.
The E1 frames are associated with the The party also experienced difficulties such
irruption and political and social deploy- as the contradiction of a discourse of hori-
ment of Podemos as the most important zontal participation with vertical manage-
political breakthrough in recent decades in ment practices where leadership is required
Spain, after its first year of existence in decision-making, marginalisation and
throughout 2014. The emergence of Pode- purging of important central figures, and a
mos was associated with the economic, so- growing militant disaffection. E2 was an at-
cial and employment crisis that emerged in tempt to re-set the public agenda regarding
2008, which ended up provoking a crisis of the debate about the existence of a network
representation that led to the rupture of the that serves the interests of an elite, which
PP-PSOE bipartisanship and a crisis of gov- started at the end of Franco’s dictatorship
ernability in 2015, with the repetition of the and extends to the present day. This was
general election in 2016. As shown by the presented with considerably more resources
data, E1 had a high social and media capil- than those dedicated to E1. This is a cam-
larity. This was due to it being closely asso- paign that grew out of a doctoral thesis
ciated with the crisis of representation in the
(Juste, 2016) on the formation of economic
dominant bipartisanship that had prevailed
power, revolving doors and the top 35 com-
until then in Spanish contemporary democ-
panies listed on the stock exchange (IBEX35)
racy. It was also the result of Podemos as-
in Spain.
suming the protection of the rights of the
middle and lower classes who had suffered This paper presents the results of the fo-
the consequences of a constantly changing llow-up and analysis of two linguistic framing
economic crisis that began in 2008, com- communication campaigns promoted by the
bined with the austerity measures of the last Spanish political party Podemos, and their
PSOE (2008) and the subsequent PP (2011 dissemination and impact on professional
and 2016) governments. E1 exemplifies the media and social media, with special empha-
ability of Podemos to create its own political sis on Facebook and Twitter, given their he-
language, which managed to create a con- gemonic position.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
70 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
Material and methods after filtering for false positives, was a to-
tal sample of 688,982 single publications
Data were collected from two different tem- which, in turn, were ranked according to
poral contexts with two different linguistic the number of times they were shared,
frames of the political party Podemos: the which we can call virality.
caste and the citizens (E1) and the conspira-
2) Frame 2 (E2). The tracking, collection and
cy and the conspiracy bus (E2). The study’s
storage period was from 01 February,
objectives were:
2017 to 01 July, 2017 (when the climate
of opinion was deemed to be inactive). It
1) To quantify the role played by the major involved the search string #LaTrama OR
online social platforms, especially Face- ‘la trama’ OR tramabús OR #tramabús
book and Twitter, and by professional me- OR tramabus OR #tramabus OR ‘autobús
dia in the dissemination of those frames. de Podemos’ OR ‘autobus de Podemos’.
2) To analyse and understand the formal and This produced, after filtering for false po-
emerging communication strategies used sitives, a total sample of 48,864 single
in the dissemination of both linguistic fra- publications which, in turn, were ranked
mes, in order to assess its effectiveness according to the number of times they
and limitations when trying to establish were shared (virality).
new relations of definition in the collective 3) The data tracking and collection was ge-
agenda. The object of study is not the ographically limited to Spain and also to
ideological or intentional assessment of the Spanish language. All those contents
the metaphors, which should be the sub- were selected which in their title or prom-
ject of another type of study. inent positions (close to the headlines)
The research was carried out in two pha- contained any of the keywords mentioned
ses. In the first phase, the communication in E1 and E2, in order to delimit the cli-
campaigns were subject to exhaustive moni- mates of opinion.
toring, using a specific technology1 for the
tracking, storage and representation of E1
and E2 data. The second phase involved the Analysis and results
qualitative analysis of the contents under The choice of metaphors in political commu-
study for E1 and E2. nication affects the expectations of audienc-
es and, depending on them, their intentional-
ity and meanings reach different social strata,
1) Frame 1 (E1). The tracking, collection and
groups or individuals. The large online social
storage period was from 01 November,
platforms, together with traditional profes-
2015 to 19 October, 2016 (when the cli-
sional media have been compelled to form a
mate of opinion was deemed to be inac-
hybrid with social media as a competitive
tive). It involved the search string ‘casta’
and interdependent cohabitation. In this way,
(caste) OR ‘la casta’ (‘the caste’) OR ‘ciu-
they create a new information ecosystem
dadanía’2 (‘citizens’) of everything posted
and shift collective interpersonal communi-
on the Internet in both social media and
cation around the dissemination of the public
professional media. What was produced,
agenda, playing a very significant mediation
role, as shown by the data obtained (Table 1).
1 Alto Data Analytics (https://www.alto-analytics.com) The analysis of social media data shows
2 Logic form of codifying the search including the word a very significant reduction in Facebook’s im-
with or without accent on the letter 'i'. portance, moving from 18% in E1 to 2.7% in
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 71
CAMPAIGN 2
GENERAL DATA CAMPAIGN 1 (C1) DIFFERENCE
(C2)
Start of monitoring 11/1/2015 2/1/2017
End of monitoring 10/19/2016 9/1/2017
Days of activity 353 212 -40%
Single publications 688,982 48,864 -93%
Average publications per day 1,952 230 -88%
Social Media
Professional media
Professional media volume 46,121 1,155 -97%
% Professional Media 6.7% 2.4% -4.3
Single professional media 934 262 -72%
Average publications per day 131 5 -96%
Media menciones /medio 49 4 -91%
Professional Medium 1 - Average volume 3,787 69 -98%
Professional medium 2 - Average volume 2,291 35 -98%
Professional medium 3 - Average volume 2,117 28 -99%
Professional medium 4 - Average volume 1,525 27 -98%
% professional medium 1 8.2% 6.0% -2.2
% professional medium 2 5.0% 3.0% -2
% professional medium 3 4.6% 2.4% -2.2
% professional medium 4 3.3% 2.3% -1
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
72 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 73
E2, despite the fact that the data shows the volume of social media fell from 18.1%
very strong role played by Podemos and its (E1) to 2.5% (E2) (15.4 points), -99% in
leaders as transmitters in E2 (see Figure 2). total volume and -98% in average daily
This contraction of Facebook cannot be ac- volume. It is not possible to corroborate
counted for by E2’s lower activity time or deny the hypothesis that the effect of
(-40%), since the average number of daily Facebook’s filtering may have given sig-
publications was even higher in its drop nificantly lower prominence to E2 than to
(-88%). E1 (and therefore, restricting the notorie-
The Twitter algorithm—which is focused ty) due to the opacity of the Facebook
on altering the order of the presentation of algorithm, and
content and not on determining, as is the (3) the explanations provided above could be
case for Facebook’s, what should or should true, but affected by the same limitation.
not be presented to each user—did not seem
to have negatively affected E2. The rate of
Twitter on the total volume of social media The analysis of the impact on traditional
grew from E1 to E2 from 72% to 95.5% (in professional media also shows a significantly
part fostered by the contraction of Facebook) lower rate of attention given to E2 than to E1.
and the average of daily Twitter publications The total volume dropped -97% from E1 to
fell to a lesser extent (-84%), since the total E2, which limited the diffusion of the propo-
average was 88%. In addition, the virality sed framing and means that it had a lower
rate (retweets) between E2 and E1 increased ability to influence the establishing of new
by 9.6 percentage points, from 78% to relations of definition of the Podemos agen-
87.5%. The total dependency rate of Face- da. Similarly, the average daily mentions in
book-Twitter within social media grew almost professional media fell a significant -96%
8 points, which showed a growing bipolar between E1 and E2. This had two possible
concentration of both platforms on the inter- explanations:
mediation of content and meanings, going
from 90% to 98% of the total volume.
1) a lower interest from professional media
There are three possible explanations for in the framings proposed in E2 after its
E2’s lower social media diffusion, notoriety initial novelty caused by its presentation
and impact: and launch (see Figure 4), which may
have had a more limited outreach, and
(1) a lower attractiveness or interest in E2 for
the collective agenda, due to its mean- 2) a potential learning process by the pro-
ings, intentions, political load or symbolic fessional media, since if they had contri-
content, as analysed below. buted to amplify and extend E1 (see Fi-
gure 3), they may have opted not to
(2) social media audiences were likely to extend or to tactically limit the attention
have experienced less exposure to E2 given to E2.
due to (i) less attention having been gene-
rated, shown by a lower total volume
(-93%), together with a lower number of Discussion and conclusions
average daily publications (-88%) and (i)
the possible effect of Facebook’s perso- The analysis of the contents of the two fra-
nalisation or algorithmic filtering, since mes allows their meanings to be understood
despite the fact that the actors who pro- further. In E1 (see Figure 1) with the excep-
moted E2 used this medium actively, tion of ‘Pablo Iglesias’ and, to a lesser extent,
Facebook’s rate with respect to the total ‘Pedro Sánchez’ and ‘Rajoy’, all the subjects
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
74 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
identified were groups (‘ahora podemos’, struct. The data showed how the denial of
‘gente’, ‘partido’ or ‘partidos’, ‘psoe’, ‘pode- E1—denying a frame always activates a
mos’, ‘gobierno’, ‘pp’, ‘ciudadanos’, ’políti- framework (Lakoff, 2004)—boosted its decen-
cos’, ‘congreso’, ‘personas’) that act as a tralised diffusion on a network-basis. This re-
network of decentralised nodes, allowing sulted in maximised audiences, media, chan-
their notoriety to be disseminated. In the nels and venues for exposure to E1. This
same way it can be inferred that E1 did not strategy was partly intentional by Podemos;
have a univocal or one-directional meaning, and also, to a large extent, it emerged be-
as had happened with E2, but was a multiple, cause a number of single professional media
open-ended meaning. In E1, neither the uses (934) extended E1, which amplified its original
nor the meanings were controlled in a centra- scope (whether foreseen or not), and beyond
lised way by Podemos, since no competition the most natural space where it was generat-
was established for the control of the rela- ed or with which it had an ideological affinity.
tions of definition around E1, but rather it was Since audiences create the circulation of con-
largely disseminated on a cascade basis, tents, the consequence was that Podemos
with a high level of spontaneity. lost or renounced the semantic control of E1,
In E1 there was a significant struggle be- which led to maximise its dissemination, and
tween the intention to affirm, for example, the it became part of the public debate.
meaning of and pointing to those who consti- The extension and social capillarity of E1,
tuted ‘the caste’, in opposition to the attempt beyond its natural ideological limits, was fa-
to deny its existence as an ideological con- cilitated by the fact that Podemos was an
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 75
emerging party, which at that time did not reflected through that language. As a conse-
have an explicit ideological definition. Pode- quence, politics and society were linked
mos had presented itself in society, using again, something which had already begun
television and social media, appealing to the with the heterogeneous and heterodox 15M
collective mind through the challenger arche- movement. It should be noted that E1 did not
type, and also as being new and different seek a call to action, activism or political as-
from the old. Podemos benefited from the cription, but rather, a non-fatalistic way of
fact that the dominant parties at that time, PP understanding the social and economic crisis
and PSOE were underrated or even explicitly that had begun in 2008. This is how audien-
disdained for. ces displayed their agenda as a form of
At a time of serious economic and social power, with an active role in the dissemina-
crisis, the social capillarity of E1 meant that tion of meanings. Power is understood here
the change of language brought about by in a Foucauldian sense, as a feature of a so-
Podemos facilitated a change in social per- cial community, and agenda is understood in
ception and that broad social layers were its most proactive sense.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
76 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
As shown by the volume and meaning of the places where it could be reproduced, en-
the data analysed, E1 ended up becoming a suring the minimisation of channel noise and
sort of cultural commodity appealing to com- a more accurate measurement of the audi-
mon sense, which is always the sign of suc- ence’s interest in the content. In short, the
cess of a good linguistic frame. And as E1 dominant logic emerging in the diffusion of
became part of the audience’s agenda, the E1 was decentralised and open-ended prop-
recreation of their meanings for or against E1 agation, while with E2 it was the logic of cen-
was facilitated through its decentralised (re) tralised, militant propagation.
circulation. In addition, both the experience and
As a result, E1 escaped the control of its learning that the professional media had had
initial promoters—there seems to have been with E1, and the greater political and ideolog-
no attempt at explicit control—and the ical burden of E2 for social media audien-
meanings of the metaphor were socialised as ces—Podemos was then an ideologically
something close to common sense. That is, positioned, official party —could be the rea-
the meanings of E1 were, to a large extent, sons why E2 was less widely disseminated
re-appropriated by the agenda of the audien- and heterogeneous, appealed to common
ces, which maximized its diffusion, across- sense to a lesser extent and, therefore, had
the-board nature, positivity and negativity, greater difficulty in being assumed as part of
connecting language and perceptions. the audiences’ agenda.
In E2 (see graph 2) the key role played by Similarly, the professional media had
the collective subjects (‘pp’, ‘ahorapodemos’, much less involvement in denying E2 than
‘podemos’) was subordinated to the individ- they had in E1. They only participated in the
ual subjects of Podemos. These acted, in diffusion of E2 when it was a major novelty,
practice, as a single collective subject (‘Irene when it was formally presented by Podemos,
Montero’, ‘Pablo Iglesias’, ‘Pablo Echenique’, which demonstrates the slope of activation
‘ahorapodemos’, ‘podemos’, etc.), exercising and deactivation of E2 (Figure 4) versus the
the function of a central node of distribution extension of E1 over time (Figure 3).
and diffusion of E2. The transmission of E2 In addition, due to the centrality of the
did not take place on a network basis, as was disseminators of Podemos and the demand
the case for E1, but from a single syndicated for discipline in the meanings of E2, a pro-
central node, because the individual subjects duction relationship between Podemos and
acted, in practice, as interchangeable and re- its re-broadcast audience ended up prevail-
dundant nodes in the homogeneous and cen- ing, while at the same time a demand was
tralised diffusion of E2. made that they should be a motivated activ-
The data analysed show that the meta- ist-audience in their social and cultural inter-
phor E2 was vertically created and con- actions.
trolled, and therefore the exact and univocal Finally, E2 was similar to a campaign con-
meanings defined beforehand were repeat- tent in its intention and had some proximity
ed—in contrast to the heterodox, multiple to the characteristics of conspiracy theories
and significantly undetermined meanings in (Swami and Furnham, 2014). This prevented
E1. With E2, Podemos assumed the diffusion it from reaching the level of cultural commod-
logic of the traditional mass media: central- ity of E1. E2’s contents and meanings were
ised, hierarchical and vertical control of con- generated, controlled and set by a central
tents and meanings, with the objective of collective subject (leaders) and this meant
maximising the potential receiving audience. sacrificing, to a large extent, a maximised
This had the advantage of easily identifying level of dissemination. This resulted in a low-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
Miguel del-Fresno García and Alan James Daly 77
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 165, January - March 2019, pp. 65-82
78 Limits for the Political Communication through large Online Platforms: from The Caste to The Plot.
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