Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this research is to shed light on how the emergence of social networks has affected political communication in new media. The breaking down of barriers between transmitters and receivers and the potential reconversion of all of them into mass communicators (Fuchs, 2013) affected several spheres: although perhaps only few were affected in such an influential way as the configuration of the social sphere in political communication. Examples such as Barack Obama’s first campaign or Donald Trump’s more recent campaign lead us to think that Twitter is indeed an integral part of political communication strategies. Design/methodology: The research has been carried out through a comparative analysis of discursive activity on Twitter of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, and the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, between the months of September and December 2018. For this purpose, a methodology has been designed that uses computer-assisted content analysis using the NVivo 11 program. Findings: The results invite us to confirm doubts expressed by several authors collected and presented in our research regarding the potential dynamizing factor of Twitter in the relationship between the governors and the governed. Research limitations/implications: Despite the limited number of cases analysed, it can be inferred that the contribution of Twitter to the enrichment of public debate is to say, at the least, dubious. Originality/value: Both the visualisation of the discourse lines of the analysed politicians and the double focus of the study, quantitative and qualitative, on the thematic tools and rhetoric that characterises the speeches by the analysed politicians, can serve as a starting point for the analysis of the role that Twitter plays both in political communication strategies and in its contribution to the public sphere.
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