The online communication of the Spanish Parliament in times of COVID-19

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Jacob González
University San Pablo CEU
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2480-5703
Tamara Vázquez
University San Pablo CEU

The Covid-19 crisis has had repercussions, both in Spanish society and in its institutions. This is the case of the Congress of Deputies, obliged to adapt its operation to the situation of the pandemic and affecting, consequently, the work of the traditional media, in charge of covering parliamentary activity. In this context in which information is key, social networks come to adopt a fundamental role as a social communication channel.


This research studies the online communication of the Lower House from March 10, 2020, with the announcement of the suspension of parliamentary activity, until April 30, when the de-escalation process is finalized. The main objective was to know what use the Congress has made of its social networks: Facebook and Twitter, during this period of crisis, while the reaction that such content has generated in the user community is valued. As demonstrated in this article, the Congress of Deputies fails to implement a communication at the height of the state of crisis generated by Covid-19.

Keywords
COVID-19, crisis communication, Congress of Deputies, Twitter, Facebook, social networks

Article Details

How to Cite
González, Jacob; and Vázquez, Tamara. “The online communication of the Spanish Parliament in times of COVID-19”. Digithum, no. 27, pp. 1-15, doi:10.7238/d.v0i27.374155.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

(c) Jacob González, Tamara Vázquez, 2021


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Author Biographies

Jacob González, University San Pablo CEU

FPI Researcher at the University San Pablo CEU of Madrid on the Social Communication programme, specifically in the line of research: communication, public sphere and citizenship. With a degree in Communication from the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) 2017, and a master’s in Corporate Communication from the University San Pablo CEU and the Communication Arts Institute TRACOR, 2018. She is linked to the research project “From mass culture to social networks: media convergence in the digital society” (CONVERED: CSO2016-74980-C2-1-R). Her research aims to analyze political and social communication based on theories such as Agenda Setting and the Framing Theory, to the use of ICT. Currently, her thesis focuses on the study of political communication from populist formations.

Tamara Vázquez, University San Pablo CEU

Assistant Professor in the Humanities and Communication Sciences Faculty at the University San Pablo CEU, accredited as an Associate Professor by ANECA. With a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a doctorate in Journalism from the University San Pablo CEU. Head of Line 2 “Communication, public sphere and citizenship” on the Doctoral Programme of Social Communication at the International School of Doctoral Studies CEINDO. She has extensive research experience and has participated continuously in 10 competitive research projects for the R&D&I National Plan. She has over 40 published writings including academic articles in scientific magazines and chapters in editorial books such as Tirant Lo Blanch, Routledge and Peter Lang, among others. For fifteen years, she has been researching the effects of the media on children and young people and various aspects of political communication, particularly politainment and the features and effects of digital policies. She has worked a six-year research term and is currently PI of the National Plan project entitled “From the masses to social networks: media convergence in the digital society” (Reference: CSO2016-74980- C2-1-R). She is scientific editor of the magazine Doxa Comunicación.

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