Political Communication in Spain: Social Media Impact and Representation of Party Campaigns

This article presents a study aimed at determin-ing how Spanish citizens perceive the messages sent to them by political parties during electoral campaigns via their profiles on social networks. By means of a descriptive quantitative approach consisting of a survey conducted through a structured questionnaire aimed at the Spanish population aged 18 and over, it is concluded that they perceive that the parties use their profiles on the social networks Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram during the election campaign basical-ly for self-referencing purposes. The differences perceived on the basis of the variables of sex, age, habitat, number of household members, region and social class are insignificant and do not al-ter the general framework observed. Thus, it can be asserted that Spaniards perceive the messages published by the parties on social networks just before elections as propaganda content that doesnot seek to establish a two-way communication channel with them.