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The hype on generative AI has raised concerns about the spread of disinformation but also opened up new opportunities for hybrid journalism. The proliferation of political propaganda campaigns spread across digital media during election periods constitutes a challenge for journalists who struggle to exercise information gatekeeping. AI-based tools can in principle help, but journalists are resistant to using them since they are sceptical about their compliance with news values and their scarce user-friendliness. To cope with such issues, we present Botlitica, a GPT3-based chatbot able to answer users’ questions according to the information shared on different social media by a given political party which is, thus, embodied by the AI agent in the conversation. The back-end and front-design of the chatbot are devised to privilege transparency. We report the results of a preliminary evaluation of Botlitica which show that the tool fastens journalists’ capabilities to navigate propaganda campaigns inducing them to exercise critical thinking.

Building on two case studies, the article explores how the Maya caciques understood the concept of consent and made use of it in concrete political negotiations with the Spanish crown in sixteenth-century Yucatan, New Spain. It highlights that the analysis of translation practices is pivotal to unraveling the intricacies of inter-legal communication under imperial rule. Although part of the corpus analyzed in the article was originally written in the Maya Yucatec language, it can be viewed as the result of a process of translation in which two legal cultures were finding ways to be intelligible to one another. The article shows, moreover, that oral exchanges and nonverbal communication – through posture or clothing, and gift-giving – were also crucial in expressing consent in the Spanish empire. This article is part of the special theme section on Consenting to Early Modern Empires, guest-edited by Sonia Tycko.

The article aims to highlight the ideological aspect of functioning politically correct vocabulary in today’s political discourse. Realization of the set goal requires solving the following objectives: 1) to expand scholarly ideas about the interpretation of the linguistic phenomenon of political correctness as sociocultural and linguistic-behavioral ideology in political discourse; 2) based on the introduction of the concept “ideologeme”, to consider the classification of politically correct lexical units, used in political discourse. The study employs general scientific methods (analysis, generalization, systematization of scholarly literature on the issue under consideration), and special linguistic methods (method of distributional analysis, used to highlight the main semantic groups of politically correct vocabulary; elements of the component analysis, necessary to identify components of the meaning of politically correct vocabulary; method of linguostylistic analysis, used to study the functional features of politically correct vocabulary based on ideology). The study emphesizes that the phenomenon of political correctness can be considered as a set of linguistic and discursive components of the organization of the ideological life of modern society. It is able to ensure the creation of a system of values, the worldview, and in general, it involves the construction of reality. It also contributes to the dissemination and imposition of an opinion on one or another issue in society, mostly within the framework of political discourse. Political correctness deals with a situation in society where implicit rules of decency direct the ways of behavior in interactions between people of different races, genders, religions, and other potentially charged groups. It seems that political correctness in political discourse concerns all those areas where the interests of different groups of society collide on the issue of what is considered true or false, and who is considered “friend” or “stranger”. Political correctness as an ideology offers a polar view on social life, highlighting in it “good” (“right”) and “evil” (“bad”). Consequently, at the most abstract level, there are concepts that define the basic values of political correctness, as well as their “antipodes,” i.e., undesirable, unacceptable phenomena and attitudes that must be eradicated from social life (e.g., tolerant / intolerant, inclusive / exclusive). In general, it can be presented as a “good – evil” model of social life, which works and effectively serves the ideology of political correctness. Admittedly, the structure of the language of political correctness is not as homogeneous as it is commonly believed. Two broad layers of politically correct lexis that perform qualitatively different roles are considered: politically correct vocabulary, which includes the “acceptable” names of sociocultural phenomena, and politically correct ideologemes that are used to directly form a politically correct worldview. Ideologemes, as a result of the interaction of language and ideology, represent the optimal means for establishing the dominant worldview in the country, influence the transformation of the addressee’s already existing political worldview, explicitly or implicitly represent the basic ideological and value attitudes of a society. If politically correct vocabulary itself is an example of the “acceptable” language concerning different matters of life, then the ideologemes of political correctness set standards for assessing heterogeneous sociocultural phenomena. In turn, the attitudes and principles embedded in the ideologemes are implemented in the creation of politically correct vocabulary. Thus, ideologemes form the core of the linguistic representation of the ideology of political correctness. Their most common word-formation models involve exploiting the suffix -ism, the -free and -phobia components, the words “bias” and “sensitivity”. It can be argued that the ideologeme is a characteristic element of the global political context, since it is a kind of reference to a particular era, its meaning is detached from the direct meanings of the lexical units that make it up. An adequate understanding of the ideologeme is p

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Background: In July 2021, in France, the hashtag "#NousSavons" ("#WeK-now") emerged, aimed at rallying COVID skeptics on Twitter. Creating a genuine online community, this hashtag mobilized its members by having them question dominant forms of knowledge. This article examines the architecture of the discourses developed by the members of the #NousSavons community. Analysis: The analysis considers two of this community's initiatives that supported a conspiracy-based perception of COVID-19: establishing the legitimacy of their perception of the crisis and publicizing this perception. Conclusions and implications: This article shows the diversity of evidence put forward by the community as well as the latter's singular positioning with regard to the truth. It also analyzes the refinement of the communication practices that were implemented in order to convince members of the public sphere of the legitimacy of their viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences / Uluslararasi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present text analyzes the place of local languages in Cameroon's war of independence. Firstly, it will present the elements of local culture which structured the political communication of nationalist fighters. In the process, the text will analyze the uses and practices of vernacular languages in the maquis, in this case languages such as the Basaa, Fe'fe', Ghómala', Yámba, Ngomba and Médúmba which were the most common used ones. From the examination of archival documents, historical monographs and oral testimonies which will serve as materials for this work it emerges that local languages were used by Cameroonian nationalists in order to raise awareness among the populations as a whole (both scholars and non-literates), to express themselves outside the values and references imposed by colonization, to articulate nationalist demands with local cultures and to achieve total independence through a "decolonization of the mind". Local languages, which had a particular status compared to colonial languages, thus provided a political, symbolic and a cultural function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the discursive strategy followed by political parties and leaders during the 2015 and 2016 campaigns in Spain. Through content analysis and a descriptive approach, the discursive frameworks used in the political agendas in a context of uncertainty and political disagreement in which two national elections were held in just six months are identified. The results indicate that the frames that predominated in the speeches were, to a greater extent, strategic and thematic. In this way, a discourse predominates in which the tactics of the campaigns and the content of the electoral programs acquire an essential role, even more so in the case of a period never seen in Spain. However, conflicting frames and political debate and agreement also play a fundamental role depending on the instrument analyzed. En este trabajo se realiza un análisis acerca de la estrategia discursiva seguida por los partidos y líderes políticos durante las campañas de 2015 y 2016 en España. A través del análisis de contenido y con un enfoque descriptivo, se identifican cuáles fueron los encuadres discursivos empleados en las agendas políticas en un contexto de incertidumbre y desacuerdo político en el que en apenas seis meses se celebraron dos elecciones nacionales. Los resultados indican que los encuadres que predominaron en los discursos fueron, en mayor medida, estratégicos y de temas. De ese modo, predomina un discurso en el que las tácticas propias de las campañas y el contenido de los programas electorales adquieren un protagonismo esencial, más aún tratándose de un periodo nunca visto en España. No obstante, los encuadres conflictivos y de debate y acuerdo político también juegan un papel fundamental dependiendo del instrumento analizado.

The 2017 presidential election had the effect of enshrining YouTube as the “new space for political communications”, allowing for a disintermediated, closer-to-the people form of expression. But before being populated by political professionals, YouTube was first the playground of YouTubers, with the most famous among them leveraging their millions of followers to become powerful influencers. It was not long before French politicians entered the YouTube universe and took an interest in these key players in connected society. In late May 2021, a comic YouTube video featuring President Emmanuel Macron caused quite a stir in the French media space. This article looks at what the head of state’s participation in an Internet-exclusive entertainment program can teach us about the staging of politics. The corpus, which includes the famous video, national daily press coverage of the event, and comments posted by Internet users on the digital platform, was subjected to a thematic categorical-content analysis that allowed us to categorize statements inductively. The event appears to be representative of the current changes in political communication in France and their impact on the French public space.

This study examines the evolution of issue coverage by the press during election campaigns in Quebec from 1994 to 2018. Two observations emerge from this study. First, we witness the diversification of the media agenda, explained in particular by a decline of the national question in the media in favor of issues such as the environment and immigration. The reframing of the national question, now much more focused on the identity dimension than on the question of the political status of Quebec, is striking. These changes seem to indicate the rise of a liberal-authoritarian political axis in the province, and the emergence of a multiparty system opens the door to a lasting political realignment. These observations tend to confirm the view that the agenda during a campaign results from the interaction between the media, the parties, and the voters and that it thus offers an appropriate reflection of the evolution of political dynamics in a given society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Renaissance & Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme is the property of Iter Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Synergies Roumanie is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Synergies Roumanie is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, studies on social networks have begun to become more and more numerous in the literature, with scientists showing a real interest in an influential analysis that they have on societies. Social networks are tools through which political candidates have the opportunity to distribute their political message during election campaigns, as well as outside them, to a growing audience. A very strong connection has been made between technology and communication, outside of which we, as individuals, can no longer exist, the virtual space managing to exploit communication in all its aspects. Online political communication, an easily accessible form of manifestation that attracts disinterested political groups, offers the possibility of avoiding information bottlenecks for citizens by changing content in real time, with low information costs, which means a real advantage for politicians.The importance of social networks in political communication is even greater as its role is the main channel of communication and occupies a special place in election campaign strategies. The present study aimes to analyze the phenomenon of social networks in terms of the benefits it offers to politics, through an online political communication with content transmitted in real time, without time limit and with low costs.

In this article we analyse how the immigration issue is narrated during the Covid-19 outbreak by several Italian political actors. We select Facebook as the main digital arena of political communication in the Italian public sphere. Quantitative analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis have been applied to politicians’ posts aiming at identifying the linguistic strategies that contribute to instrumentalizing the emergency and aim to reinforce the politicization of the issue. Findings suggest that the main discursive strategies used by politicians do not only include migrants as a danger for the spread of the virus, but the migratory narration is systematically organized on negative campaigning blaming political opponents. The contribution helps to reveal how the anti-migration discourse is reproduced during the Covid-19 outbreak and how the politicization of the migration serves as a context for the normalization of migrant’s exclusion.

The Sardines represented a significant novelty in Italian political landscape. This postmodern social movement emerged in the autumn of 2019 in Bologna “declaring war” (in a symbolic way) on Matteo Salvini and trying to avoid the victory of Lega and right-wing parties in the Emilia Romagna regional elections. The mobilization was largy successful by introducing this new movement into the national political debate and the media discourse. This has brought also some original perspectives compared with latest mobilization’s history of civil society in Italy. The article addresses the following issues: The roots and genesis of the Sardines; the contradictory (even if really successful, indeed) development and the potential and problematic steps for the institutionalization process; the communication strategies, the self-narrative and political discourse; the organizational and political metamorphosis due to the evolution of the pandemic. Las Sardinas representaron una innovación significativa en el panorama político italiano. Este movimiento social posmoderno surgió en el otoño de 2019 en Bolonia “declarando guerra” (de manera simbólica) a Matteo Salvini, y tratando de evitar la victoria de la Liga y de los partidos de derechas en las elecciones regionales de Emilia Romagna. La movilización fue realmente exitosa, introduciendo este nuevo movimiento en el debate político nacional y en el discurso mediático. Ha introducido también algunas perspectivas originales en comparación con la última historia de movilización de la sociedad civil en Italia. El artículo aborda los siguientes temas: las raíces y génesis de las Sardinas; el desarrollo contradictorio (aunque realmente exitoso) y el camino potencial y problemático hacia el proceso de institucionalización; las estrategias de comunicación, la auto-narrativa y el discurso político; la metamorfosis organizativa y política que implica la evolución pandémica.

Following the critical discourse analysis approach, this article intends to highlight how the anti-immigration perspective is (re)produced within the Facebook page of the Italian political leader Matteo Salvini during the pandemic scenario between March 2020–March 2021. Quantitative and qualitative analysis have been applied to Salvini’s posts and users’ comments aiming at identifying the linguistic strategies that contribute to instrumentalizing the emergency and aim to reinforce the process of “securitization” of national borders as well as the re-legitimation of national identities. Findings suggest that the main discursive strategies used by the political leader do not include migrants as a danger for the spread of the virus. Rather, Salvini systematically organized the migratory narration on negative campaigning blaming political opponents and recontextualized the moralization of borders. The contribution helps to reveal how the anti-migration discourse is reproduced during the COVID-19 outbreak and how the politicization of the migration serves as a context for the normalization of migrant’s exclusion.

Starting from an applied research project and its findings, we develop a broader discussion about the uses of lived experiences highlighted through applied research in the advocacy NGO’s rhetoric. As emphasised by many scholars having researched rhetoric and political communication, lived experiences of marginalised community members are being increasingly included in the organisational communication that aims to foster civic and democratic participation. Having actively collaborated as an external consultant for a research project funded by the Trust for London, on behalf of the Citizenship and Integration Initiative, and the UK Democracy Fund, a Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust initiative, we explore the role of applied research projects as mediums of lived experiences in public deliberations around civic and democratic participation.

Inicialmente cunhado por Henry Jenkins no decorrer da conceptualização da cultura de convergência dos media, o fenómeno transmedia ultrapassou, nos últimos anos, a barreira entre a ficção e a realidade e transformou-se em ferramenta estratégica para a comunicação político-partidária do século XXI. O presente estudo analisa, através de uma revisão sistemática da literatura, as principais obras que unem o fenómeno à comunicação política, procurando compreender a extensão e profundidade da sua utilização. Destaca-se o caso do partido político espanhol Podemos, como exemplo claro do uso eficaz do transmedia como parte integrante de uma estratégia de comunicação política digital. Conclui-se ainda que o fenómeno não se encontra tão difundido na esfera política como seria expectável. Palavras-chave: transmedia; comunicação política; cultura de convergência; Podemos.

During the Early Modern period, the earthquakes become a topic of interest. The article focuses on the news about the seismic activity of the Hispanic Monarchy. Besides the introduction and conclusions, the essay presents two paragraphs. While the first part scrutinizes the confidential communication by the Habsburg administration, instead, the second analyses public discussions on several disasters, that take place in the streets of Madrid during the summer of 1688.

The crisis of the virile body that fuels Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's literary and political imagination resonates in Gilles in a particularly articulated way: on the one hand, the conflicts of the decadent society shift onto the character's body; on the other hand, Interwar France becomes a body agitated by contrasting tensions. As a figure in which several conflicting tensions coexist, the body is the ideal starting point for highlighting Gilles' semantic and semiotic autonomy from any excessively monological interpretation. All this without underestimating - or even denying - the presence of an ideological tension: the atomisation of identity makes the body an evanescent simulacrum which, far from coinciding with a series of somatic coordinates, can only become an object of interest insofar as it is subjected to a process of ideologisation. Such a view problematizes the strictly propagandistic configuration of fascist discourse, generally proceeding through a system of clear-cut oppositions. In Gilles, these fundamental antinomies are inscribed in a plot, that is to say, in an axiologically mobile network based on the coexistence of opposites. The issue of the virile body is thus linked to a conflicting tension, which, throughout the text, takes on both individual and collective value: the one between nostalgia for the aristocratic model and acceptance of petty bourgeois mediocrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ESSACHESS is the property of ESSACHESS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Emotions are considered important drivers of the diffusion of messages on social networking sites. Therefore, emotion-eliciting political communication yields the potential to reach broad audiences and to influence citizens’ attitudes and behavior. In this study, we investigate message characteristics that potentially trigger emotional reactions on part of the users of political social networking pages and test if this fosters the diffusion of political content in the network. Based on appraisal theory, we employ a manual coding scheme to identify appraisal dimensions in political parties’ Facebook posts that should trigger sadness or anger. We subsequently combine the manual codings with information of the users’ reactions to the respective posts, which we gathered using an automated content analysis. More specifically, we determine (1) if posts that include sadness or anger appraisals are associated with the corresponding emotional reactions in the form of emojis and (2) if these posts are shared more often.

The investiture speech of His Excellency Mr. (H.E.M) Alassane Bala Sakandé (P.A.N) delivered on September 8, 2017 before the National Assembly of Burkina and broadcast live on Burkina National Radio and Television is not only his very first official speech but also a political discourse with multiple challenges, given the context of its production. Behind this speech that looks like a funeral oration, there lies a whole strategy of political communication based sometimes on the efficient exploitation of different forms of self-representation in the speech, sometimes on a deliberate desire to influence its audience by surfing on its emotions. If the form of the evoked content draws the attention, it is not less about the form of expression which rests on the rhetoric of the seduction and draws itself from the source of the enthymeme and logical reasoning. This paper questions in particular the notion of political ethos linked to that of pathos to examine the stakes of this discourse as logos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: Cet article fait état des pratiques marketing de quatre partis politiques (Coalition avenir Québec, Parti libéral du Québec, Parti québécois, Québec solidaire) en vue de l'élection générale québécoise de 2018. La couverture médiatique sur la pratique du marketing politique au Québec laissait présager une adoption plus marquée de l'approche marketing en 2018, notamment grâce à une utilisation soutenue des données numériques. Pour vérifier cette hypothèse, des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été menées auprès du personnel de campagne de ces formations. Nos résultats stipulent que la planification électorale se fait bel et bien dans un esprit de marketing politique. Les partis pratiquent toutefois un marketing partiel : ils mobilisent principalement l'intelligence de marché à des fins tactiques. Le numérique entraîne un raffinement de cette approche publicitaire. Finalement, l'application du concept de data-driven campaign n'est pas encore pleinement intégrée au Québec. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the rhetoric deployed by two professional orders, the Ordre des ergothérapeutes du Québec and the Ordre des orthophonistes et des audiologistes du Québec, when they are called upon to contribute to public debates on various social issues. What rationalities do they promote and how are these rationalities are in tension with those articulated by the government? To answer this question, we analyzed 10 recent briefs tabled at the National Assembly of Quebec. Our analyses reveal four rationalities: political, economic, scientific and ethical. By revealing these rationalities, we highlight the tensions between bureaucratic and professional logic. This article thus helps to demystify a little-known political communication exercise.

This study examines Joko Widodo's rhetoric on Instagram during the pandemic. This study is significant for several reasons; social media has become an indispensable channel for political leaders to communicate with their constituents, particularly during crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. By analyzing the language, tone, and themes of President Widodo's Instagram posts from January to December 2021, researchers can gain insight into his communication strategy and the extent to which it may have influenced public opinion and behavior. In addition, by analyzing President Widodo's Instagram posts, we can better understand populism's role in political communication during the pandemic. Populist rhetoric frequently makes emotional appeals and aims to create a sense of “us versus them,” which can effectively mobilize support but can also lead to polarization and division. President Jokowi consciously refrained from portraying himself as a hero or savior, contrary to what is commonly observed in the communication patterns of some leaders during crises. Instead, Jokowi emphasized the importance of unity, community cohesion, and adherence to public health regulations. By doing so, President Jokowi intended to cultivate a sense of shared responsibility and encourage individuals to participate in the fight against the pandemic.

Social media are a virtual reality to which many fields, such as politics, have had to adapt. These new media serve both political parties and voters, who now have easy and instant access to political information. We are therefore particularly interested in the communication of Moroccan political parties during the 2021 legislative elections. Through our study, we wanted to find out: what impact does the use of social networks in electoral campaigns have on the environment? We’re interested in the environmental aspect because election campaigns have always used leaflets and flyers as a means of communication, to the great detriment of the environment. This is also the case in Morocco. During the last legislative elections, despite the health crisis and the decision by public authorities to limit or even ban leaflet distribution in certain provinces, the streets were littered with paper. To answer our research question, we conducted a quantitative study covering the last legislative elections. Our study showed that political parties can run election campaigns without using leaflets, since our sample claimed to have followed these campaigns mainly through social networks. Also, the political party that won the elections was the one with the strongest digital footprint. Therefore, to limit the impact of election campaigns on the environment, it’s important to turn to digital, for a paperless approach that serves the goals of sustainable development.

This article analyses the political communication on Twitter of the Government of Spain at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The #estevirusloparamosunidos campaign on Twitter is monitored during the dates with the worst results in terms of fatalities (March 31th- April, 4th, 2020). The sample included in total 398 523 tweets in four data sets. Through the Social Network Analysis, the main actors and the main interactions between users are identified. The research shows a high coincidence between the typology of the Press Conference Spokespersons and the main actors on the analyzed hashtag, prioritizing the Spanish Administration and the Armed Forces. There was also a high relationship of the main opinion leaders with their “natural spectrum”. We conclude that in this hashtag there was a “war-like” atmosphere. Via the computer-based text analysis we identify that the word ‘government’ was mentioned more than medical words and that there are present some military-like terms.

Many studies have highlighted the role of gender stereotypes in impressions of politicians. In general, a politician’s image benefits from behaving consistently within gender stereotypes. The present study tested whether this also applied to different image restoration tactics employed by male versus female politicians after a scandal. We assessed participants’ evaluation of a fictitious male or female politician soon after a scandal and then after his or her defence. We used a 3 × 2 experimental design to compare the effectiveness of three defensive tactics involving different degrees of assertiveness vs. submissiveness as a function of a politician’s gender. All tactics were overall effective in improving the damaged reputation of the fictitious politician but, as expected, using the excuse of mitigating circumstances (submissive) was more beneficial to female politicians while diffusing responsibility by accusing another person (assertive) was more beneficial to male politicians, both in terms of global attitude and stereotypical evaluations (communality and agency, respectively). The tactic of mortification and requests for forgiveness did not have different effects by gender. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

While there is growing interest in political crises in political communication research, crisis has not yet become a meaningful concept. Also, research tends to be reactive, which is suggested by an analysis of when and how the “crisis” label occurred in Swiss media from 2000 to 2018 and how recent scholarship examines political crises. This commentary gives an overview of different research areas within this fragmented “crisis” field and discusses a nuanced concept of crises that is more sensitive to the causes and dynamics of communicatively constructed crises on the macro level. It argues that a more systematic, more comparative and more macro-oriented research on political crises will help reduce the reactive nature of the field and enhance its public relevance.

The present article aims to analyze the communication developed in Social Media by the four major parties: PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos, to go in depth if social networks are a real platform towards participatory democracy. This investigation focuses on what is the motion of censorship that was presented by Pedro Sanchez, leader of the PSOE, between the end of May and early June 2018 in Spain. It is a Political and social milestone in this country, where it is the first time that this motion is accepted and manages to change the President of the Government. The interest of the subject that is dealt with in this analysis is the fact that, when studying the political communication of the last times, a change of the language due to the technological revolution, the development of new channels and means, and the implication of the citizens in this technological development are the key in the so-called Participatory Democracy.

Communication in Italy in the last European elections marks the victory of the algorithm on values and contents and reaffirms the very strong weight given by the fake news throughout the knowledge process on programs and candidates. It is a communication style that leads to the return of propaganda between populism and sovereignty. The survey on the communication of political parties in Italy bears witness this trend reversal and highlights the drifts that reinforce wickedness, individualism and a knowledge limited by the distortions generated by informational cascades.

Contemporary media situation in the Southern Bessarabian region reflects the sphere of various communication types. In this context, it is necessary to consider the main directions in the understanding of the term “media communication”, which presupposesinterdisciplinary approach. Media communication is connected with the implementation of different socially significant types of interaction, including high information capacity, speed of transmission and replication, availability, possibility of individual use, the influential power of media communication means. Media-linguistic approach aims at the investigation of language functioning in both printed and network media in order to distinguish and specify different media communication types.

The European Union is an interesting political space for analyzing the points of contact between research on international communication and research on intercultural communication. Indeed, the European Union (EU) is obviously with 28 countries (soon 27) a space where unfolds an international multilingual communication. It is also a political institution that seeks to create an intercultural public sphere to legitimize a “united in diversity” political structure (EU motto). Is this institutional goal achieved? Can the communication policy implemented by the EU executive (the European Commission) for 500 million Europeans help to create a space for mediation and engagement that is common as well as respectful of cultural diversity? The purpose of this article is to answer this question.

Alongside the reform and opening-up policies in China since 1978, there has been a transformation of China’s governmental functions and of its media system. While adapting to the complex political process towards democratization, the Chinese Communist Party media have further expanded their dual identity as both organizational communicator and mass communicator, and are involved in Chinese political communication in a variety of ways. To improve the role of internal organizational communication, the Party media have extended their sphere of activity from traditional Internal Reference (xinwen neican 新闻内参) to Online Public Opinion Monitoring (yuqing jiance 舆情监测) and Media Think Tank Consultation (meiti zhiku 媒体智库). As leaders in China’s market-oriented media reform and tech-driven media integration, the Chinese Party media have remained dominant and privileged agents in China’s mass media system, and active participants in social political communication in a number of ways, from traditional policy publicity, to media supervision and timely external opinion guiding.

This essay investigates the recent boom in the use of animated cartoons for political communication in China which began in late 2013. A series of political cartoons are examined against the background of a comprehensive media revolution designed by top-following the Chinese Communist Party’s (hereafter CCP) new understanding of the role of media and public opinion. I argue, by looking closely at the creative use of political cartoons, that the CCP has adjusted its views on the role of media in the digital age – from propaganda mouthpiece, to guiding opinion unifier for popularizing the Party’s rule. Their efforts and success in stimulating a significant number of responses through the use of animated cartoons has given rise to a new communication model of mixing top-down and bottom-up flow of message. Behind the new model was the CCP’s changing understanding of the public: from “target audience of propaganda” to guided audience, and then to central players in popularizing the Party. The major media reform since Xi took office in early 2013 has laid institutional, managerial and editorial foundations to sustain this conceptual change in practice. The boom in political cartoons is the most conspicuous result of that.

Scholarship on media storms has yet to systematically assess their impacts on public opinion. This article aims to fill this gap by using survey data to analyze the evolution of public opinion with respect to the so-called "refugee crisis," a media storm that occurred during the 2015 Canadian federal campaign. The evidence shows that the storm influenced citizen attitudes in regard to key frames of the issue and that the effect persisted until the end of the campaign. They also demonstrate how the most prominent frame became a determinant of voting intention, and ultimately, vote choice. Overall, these findings suggest that citizens are receptive to media storms and therefore offer a concrete example of how media market logic can have a preponderant influence in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Parliament elections have often been defined second-order elections, focused on national rather than transnational issues. This paper investigates the combined impact of Eurosceptic populism and social media in the development of the campaign during the 2019 European Parliament elections. It evaluates how populist and non-populist politicians and parties campaigned for the European elections on Twitter by using the case study of Italy. Computer-assisted quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of social media content are used to assess the relevance of Europe in political communication and the strategies used by different political actors. Findings show that the concept of nation plays a central role in the campaign, with Europe depicted either as an enemy (by nationalist populism) or a saviour (by pro-Europeans). Moreover, there is e tendency towards a “populist shift” in the communication style.

With the end of Mare Nostrum, the outsourcing of rescue operations and the attempt to europeanise the crisis, the role of NGOs in the SAR area is shifting from a complementary to a fundamental one in rescue operations as a whole. The rapid change in the regulatory framework governing Italian and European actions requires a constant redefinition of their roles and action strategies in the SAR area. A consequence (unforeseen) of their presence has been the criminalization of their activities, which are considered functional with regard to human trackers. The rhetoric of “sea taxis” has produced a change in NGO communication strategy, with a more careful description of their actions to save migrants. The structures of communication have become more complex and professionalized, while a shrewder use is made of social networks in a hybrid system. The SeaWatch3 and Carola Rackete case study is an example of this change in strategy, which involves major personalization of communication, with extended use of the personal stories of migrants, crew and supporters. The case study is conducted with a qualitative methodology that takes into account the press review of 17 national newspapers, self-produced images by NGOs, and the collection of tweets (with NODEXL) during the long phases of the crisis. From the twittersphere emerges a) the progressive internationalization of the case, with the intervention of the main European media, the main political actors, the NGO network, and b) the attempts of reframing promoted especially by NGOs.

The research behind this paper is set in the context of the 2016 US presidential election that has come to symbolize the post-truth era. We conducted a literature review on the 2016 election, with the aim to better understand the impact of computational propaganda on the election outcome and on the behaviour of voters. The paper opens with a definition of post-truth society and related concepts such as fake news and computational propaganda. It explores the changes of political communication in a digital environment and analyses the role of social media in the 2016 election. It probes into phenomena such as the trivialization of politics and the loss of credibility of political actors, which are both common in post-truth societies. The reviewed literature seems to indicate that social media have become strong actors on the political stage, but so far not the predominant source of political information and influence on the behaviour of voters. The paper makes two important contributions. Firstly, drawing on the concept of post-truth society, it analyses the role of computational propaganda in the 2016 presidential election, and secondly, it attempts to explain the paradox of general political apathy on one hand, and increased political activism on the other. These are some of the challenges we are now facing, and in order to be able to cope with them it is important to acknowledge and understand them.

The article discusses the first three messengers sent to Madrid from the Philippines and Mexico to report on the progress of the "Jornada del Poniente" led by Miguel López de Legazpi and to present a series of petitions. The issues at stake were, on the one hand, the boundary between Spanish and Portuguese established by the Treaty of Zaragoza signed in 1529 and, on the other hand, the desire of the expedition members to begin the conquest. The Madrid negotiations are also taking place in the context of the reform of the Indian government, which took shape in 1568 with the Junta Magna. Ultimately, the article first demonstrates the role of knowledge, as a resource and capital, in the relationship established between the king and his distant vassals. Second, it examines the value of physical presence at the Court to present and defend petitions. Third, the article shows that the messenger had a kind of monopoly in the Court that could be contrary to the interests of the mandators. In conclusion, we understand that, in the Hispanic imperial space, communication had been confronted with socio-political rather than geographical "roughness".

This article explores the local political strategies associated with the implementation of sustainable bike policies in southern European cities. It combines geographical concepts and methods , on the one hand, and sustainable policy studies on the other hand, with the aim of highlighting the specificities of the Mediterranean political context of mobility transition. Using Valencia as a case study, it shows that tactical urbanism is being used to put sustainable mobilities on the local agenda. This justifies and embodies a change in municipal policy and politics after a decade of crisis. Sustainable mobility projects materialise and spatialise, in various ways, democratic values within public space. The article therefore studies the strategies employed to mark the urban territory with green mobility infrastructures (part 1); it reveals the construction of a discursive space that polarises local debates (part 2); it describes the symbolic reintegration of Valencia into a network of model cities (part 3). Such a strategy does not create an effective Mediterranean model of the cycle-friendly city, because it does not modify the structural organisation of space or the social representations that underpin current mobility practices (part 4).

The first Conte Government took office on the 1st of June, 2018, almost ninety days after the national elections held on the 4th of March: it is the longest period in the history of the Italian Republic between the date of the elections and the birth of a government. What happened to the political communication during this long period? By using content and statistical text analysis, three channels of political communication were analysed: online newspapers, social media and official speeches at the end of the consultations. The intent of the article is to examine some typical dynamics of the new ecosystem of political communication that are strictly linked, in other words: the increasing of disintermediation; the hybridization of institutional, media and social communication spheres; the supposed end of the mediation role of information professionals. This aim was raised also by placing a specific focus on the differences in communication style of the main leaders involved in the formation of the first Conte Government: Luigi Di Maio for the Five Stars Movement and Matteo Salvini for the Lega. By focusing on the entire period of the consultations and on the analysis of the contents conveyed through the various channels, it was possible to understand in depth the peculiarities of the communication strategies adopted, how they relate to each other and to targets and events. The analysis of the data highlighted the low heterogeneity of the peculiar lexicons of the various communication channels and the link between the differences in communication styles, as well as the means by which information and the temporal dimension are conveyed; in addition, it fosters to identify the differences between the main leaders Di Maio and Salvini on these aspects.

In recent years, several instances of political actors who created fake grassroots activity on the Internet have been uncovered. We propose to call such fake online grassroots activity digital astroturfing, and we define it as a form of manufactured, deceptive and strategic top-down activity on the Internet initiated by political actors that mimics bottom-up activity by autonomous individuals. The goal of this paper is to lay out a conceptual map of the phenomenon of digital astroturfing in politics. To that end, we introduce, first, a typology of digital astroturfing according to three dimensions (target, actor type, goals), and, second, the concept of digital astroturfing repertoires, the possible combinations of tools, venues and actions used in digital astroturfing efforts. Furthermore, we explore possible restrictive and incentivizing countermeasures against digital astroturfing. Finally, we discuss prospects for future research: Even though empirical research on digital astroturfing is difficult, it is neither impossible nor futile.

Since the 1990s, the norm of singularity has been spreading across the political field. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific object: the political book. The careful examination of 210 publications from the 1958-2011 period makes it possible to identify changes within the genre. The political book is, at the beginning of the period, marked by the strength of the institutional hold on authors, ministers or party leaders. Things change with the normalization of the Gaullist model that establishes a “right to style” at the top of the State, which will subsequently be claimed not only by his successors but also by various candidates to the presidential election. Currently, the political book is free from institutional exemplarity: politicians mark their distance from the requirement of loyalty (valorization of free speech); they publish autobiographies and resort to the ideology of authenticity.