2020_05_05_ICS_nuevas_tecnologias
A book analyses the impact of new technologies on the relationship between politicians, the media speech and the public in 12 countries.
The book is co-edited by ICS and ISSA researchers and published by publishing house Peter Lang.
PHOTO: Manuel Castells
A new publication of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra analyzes the impact of new technologies on the relationship between politicians, the media and the public. The book 'Politics and populism across modes and average' has been edited by Ruth Breeze, principal investigator of the ICS ' project 'Public discourse' of the ICS, and Ana María Fernández Vallejo, collaborator of project and professor at ISSA School of Management Assistants.
Published by publishing house Peter Lang, one of the five best in the world according to Scholarly Publishers Indicators, it brings together 12 programs of study that explore the relationship between politicians and the public through social networks in 12 countries around the world, such as Germany, Austria, the United States, Greece, Italy, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
The publication explores aspects such as whether technology has allowed the democratization of politics, the use that politicians make of social networks or their relationship with the rise of populism. "In all cases, it is observed how the chosen media have an impact on the discourses that are handled," said Breeze. For example, he said that tweets, conditioned by their brevity, tend to express stronger emotions and may contain intentional errors to give the impression of spontaneity.
Citizen empowerment or manipulationAccording to the editors, new technologies have changed the relationship between politicians, the media and the public in both positive and negative ways. On the one hand, the possibility of public participation allows citizen empowerment and social discussion . Several chapters demonstrate how the use of networks transforms political awareness in very diverse countries, as in the case of the Arab Spring movements, organized through Twitter.
On the other hand, the researchers regret that new technologies can also encourage manipulation and radicalization. For Breeze, the forums on politics in the United Kingdom favored polarization, "generating greater tension in the British society divided by the Brexit.
"Only time will tell whether technological changes in communication open the door to greater democratization or lend themselves to increasingly worrisome manipulation," Breeze concludes.
This publication is part of the research 'El demos en el imaginario de la nueva política: el discussion sobre la voluntad popular en el Public discourse ', developed between 2016 and 2018 at the ICS and funded by the Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain (FFI2015-65252-R).