Abstract

HERNANDEZ-SANTAOLALLA, Víctor  and  SOLA-MORALES, Salomé. Post-truth and intimidation on Twitter during Catalan referendum 1-O. OBS* [online]. 2019, vol.13, n.1, pp.102-121. ISSN 1646-5954.

The idea of "post-truth" has become common in media discourse, although sometimes used as a synonym for lying and in others as a tendency to use more emotional argumentation than rational in the construction of the messages. This propensity is linked, at the same time, to a growing use of hate and intimidation on the Internet and social networks sites as an intentional or unintentional mechanism to end any type of debate. At the same time, there is a growing tendency of using intimidation in the Internet and social networks sites as an intentional or unintentional mechanism to end any type of debate. Moreover, this is a form of communication that bets on emotionality and renounces rationality or argumentation. In this line, this article analyzes the concepts of post-truth and intimidatory discourse in the context of the "Catalan process" and, specifically, in the context of voting of October 1st, 2017. For this, a quantitative methodology has been used, applying an analysis of content to a total of 573 tweets issued between September 30th and October 2nd, 2017. Of these, 150 were published by 13 leaders and political parties spokespersons of parties that had representation in the Congress of Deputies and in the Parlament of Catalonia, and the rest were responses to these messages from other users. The results corroborate, in line with the idea of post-truth, the tendency of politicians to follow rhetorical strategies based on the emotion and feelings. Regarding the responses of users, the tendency to the attack more than to the debate is confirmed. However, a generalization in the use of offense and aggression can not be confirmed.

Keywords : Political communication; Catalonia; emotion; hateful culture; social media.

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