POLITICAL SPEECH IN SOCIAL NETWORKS ABOUT THE IMMIGRANT MINORITY GROUP: ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVES AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

In a climate of polarization like the one we are currently experiencing, the use of fear and disqualification, so common in electoral political strategies, runs up against ethical and legal limits linked to hate speech and the praise of terrorism. For this reason, studying the dynamics of networks that are on the verge of radicalization, in general, and hate speech, in particular, becomes vital. The objective of this study is, firstly, to characterize the speech related to immigration that comes from the political representatives of the main parties in Spain and, secondly, to evaluate this speech based on the level of risk of committing crimes related to hate speech. For this purpose, a social network is used as an analysis system, Twitter, in which 500 tweets related to the words << immigrants >>, << menas >> (unaccompanied minors) and << refugees >> are analyzed from a total of 132,249 tweets from the more influential political parties. The findings point out the existence of a statistically significant and antagonistic pattern between the PSOE's and Vox's political parties' speech regarding illegal immigration. Specifically, it is appreciated how while the first highlights the most humanistic part of immigration and considers that it is a problem that should be solved internationally, the second underlines the negative consequences that this situation could have on the security of Spanish citizens. Finally, various educational implications related to media competence and the empowerment of teachers and students are proposed.