Twitter as a tool for communication and disinformation. An information transparency and political corruption in Spain analysis

Abstract

The propagandistic and advertising discourse, both of leaders and political parties, has been getting full, in recent times, of falsehoods, fakes and information of dubious veracity and little contrasted rigor. This finds, in social networks, an ideal medium for the dissemination of these messages, especially Twitter, the most used social network for political issues. And, above all, in election periods, which is of great concern to voters, who already fearlessly state that corruption is one of their main concerns, as indicated by some polls. Therefore, the aim of this study is to discover the political treatment of corruption on Twitter, identifying the brands of false language of the candidates and verifying the opinion of experts on the need to increase public transparency. The methodology used is based on quantitative, qualitative and discursive content analysis with a comparative approach, focused on the personal accounts of the five candidates to the General Elections in Spain in 2019. This is completed with a panel of experts to professionals and academics in the field of political communication. The results ratify that politicians promote a fallacious discourse and that, because of this, a policy of absolute transparency is more necessary than ever.