CFP - Political communication and democracy: from the traditional to the emergent

Contemporary Western democracies are facing a double crisis: on the one hand, technocracy questions their effectiveness as a form of government, arguing that this task should only fall to experts in the field; on the other hand, populism accuses the political class of being a caste whose decisions do not really represent the popular will, i.e. the interest of the people who elect them, thus lacking legitimacy (Pérez-Verduzco, 2019; Van Reybrouck, 2017).

To this situation must be added the challenges derived from technological development, and in particular, the development of the Internet, digital media and social networks (Rúas-Araújo et al., 2015). In recent decades, and possibly to a greater extent since the COVID-19 pandemic, digital media have revolutionised different areas of modern life, including political communication. The impact of social networks, the phenomenon of the influencer, the popularisation of the use of big data for political research, new media as channels of persuasion and citizen criticism, among others, are aspects that demand attention and analysis (Dávalos, 2021; Dorantes, 2023).