Twitch como herramienta de comunicación política: análisis de potencialidades

Núria Roca-Trenchs; Alexandre López-Borrull; Ferran Lalueza

doi:10.7764/cdi.57.64235

Authors

Núria Roca-Trenchs Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, España http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9389-5098
Alexandre López-Borrull Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, España https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1609-2088
Ferran Lalueza Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, España https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7010-9795

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.57.64235

Keywords:

Twitch; political communication; social media; TikTok; Instagram; Twitter; youth; politainment

Abstract

The digital platform ecosystem has a mix of new players, innovations, and trends. To this must be added an increase in political disaffection, polarization, and disinformation. Twitch was created to entertain; here, we study its use for political communication, positing whether it can reach specific age segments, such as young people. The study presents an exploratory analysis of the Twitch profiles of the main political parties of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, specifically, PSOE and VOX, the only ones with a presence on that network. Profiles of Spanish, European and international political representatives and parties are also explored to broaden the scope of the analysis. Among the advantages are modernity, loyalty capacity, the potential to reach new voters in times of polarization, and the possibility to monetize content to fund campaigns. Challenges include the need to experiment with new formats, the increase of politainment, the need to create own narratives, and the opportunity to create new channels or increase the presence in existing ones. Twitch can contribute to the rapprochement between the political class and the citizenry, especially in young segments, more distant from politics. Trying out new proposals and rhetoric of proximity, connecting directly and persuasively with the most elusive audience and breaking the most inoperative polarizations may be some of the benefits derived from using Twitch due to its characteristics: livestream hegemony , interaction, engagement, loyalty, low advertising saturation, and a young audience.

Author Biographies

Núria Roca-Trenchs, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, España

Núria Roca Trenchs, holds a degree in Philosophy (UAB) and in Audiovisual Communication (UOC) and a Ph.D. in Journalism and Communication Sciences (UAB). Professor of the Department of Communication Sciences at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Her research interests focus on political communication. She is part of the consolidated research group Audio-visual-textual Narrative Identity Analysis (AINA, by its Spanish acronym) of the UIC.

Alexandre López-Borrull, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, España

Alexandre López-Borrull, associate professor of Information and Communication Science Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Ph.D. in Chemistry (UAB), he also holds a degree in Documentation (UOC). Director of the Information and Documentation degree at the latter university. His research interests focus on disinformation, social media, and open science. He is part of the UOC Learning, Media and Entertainment (GAME, by its Catalan acronym) research group.

Ferran Lalueza, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, España

Ferran Lalueza, holds a degree in Information Sciences from UAB and a Ph.D. in Journalism from UPF, and is a senior lecturer in Communication and Social Media at UOC. He is the director of the academic journal COMeIN. Revista de los Estudios de Ciencias de la Información y de la Comunicación, and is a member of the recognized consolidated research group GAME. He is currently involved in the eHealthLit4Teen research project (2022-2025), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

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