TELEGRAM COMO CANAL DE AUTOPROMOCIÓN POLÍTICA EN CAMPAÑA EL CASO DE LAS ELECCIONES A LA COMUNIDAD DE MADRID DE 2021.

The emergence of mobile instant messaging services has brought about a new transformation in the communication driven by political actors. Such services have turned these platforms into a tool for disseminating information to attract new voters. The aim of this research is to find out how Telegram is used by the main political parties which stood for the elections to the Community of Madrid held on the 4th of May, 2021. In order to do so, we choose an exploratory study and a quantitative content analysis over a sample of 710 messages published by the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos, Podemos, Más Madrid and Vox between the 18th of April and the 5th of May is used. Results show that political parties have incorporated Telegram as another tool in their campaign communication strategies. Moreover, its use is conditioned by factors such as ideology, trajectory and opposition on the government/opposition axis. The main function assigned to this platform is of an informative nature. Finally, the theme preferred by the parties during the campaign are the electoral proposals. This aspect reveals that Telegram is primarily configured as a channel for political selfpromotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]