Political Discussion on Television in Times of Elections: A Promise of Pluralism Social Media Users Hardly Recognize

Abstract

In this research, we set out to analyze, on the one hand, the promises of pluralism of four television channels in the months before the referendum of October 25th, 2020, in Chile, and on the other hand, how YouTube and Twitter audiences reacted to them. Through a mixed method of content analysis and qualitative analysis, we found that pluralism was not one of the most mentioned aspects by the public in these social media. When there were allusions to it, the assessment was negative. This article seeks to contribute to studies on pluralism not only in Chile but also at a more general level, focusing on a global phenomenon, such as the possibilities of participation that social media provide to audiences who consume journalistic content.