The policy on Twitter. A comparative study of the discursive strategies of the finalist candidates for the Presidency of Ecuador in 2017

Abstract

The Social media have become spaces for electoral promotion and propaganda that attract the political class because of its capacity to amplify discourses, the possibility of arriving with messages to increasingly heterogeneous social groups and, obviously, by reducing costs for the production and dissemination of communication material.
In this context, the present study seeks to contrast the discursive strategies used, on Twitter, by Lenin Moreno and Guillermo Lasso, finalist candidates in the Ecuadorian presidential elections of 2017, with two specific objectives: on the one hand, to identify the social, symbolic and ideological that are part of the tactics for the mobilization of emotions in the electorate and, on the other hand, to establish the priority publics to which they are directed through the social environment.
The methodology considered the content analysis, both of his discourse and cultural artifacts at the audiovisual level. From a qualitative practice and its hermeneutical relationship, we concentrate on the discursive description to decipher the meanings after the words. The discussion focuses on the political discourse crystallizing using personalization strategies based on consumable narratives, but of rapid expiration and it is also observed that the most recurrent tactic is the construction of ideological enemies, rather than personal ones.