Crisis políticas en redes sociales. La comunicación del Gobierno del Ecuador en Instagram y X durante el Paro Nacional de 2022

Cristian Lozano-Recalde; Guillem Suau-Gomila; Carles Pont-Sorribes

doi:10.31921/doxacom.2829

Authors

Cristian Lozano-Recalde Pompeu Fabra University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8459-8377
Guillem Suau-Gomila University of Lleida https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8364-675X
Carles Pont-Sorribes Pompeu Fabra University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1135-4245

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.2829

Keywords:

Crisis Communication, political crisis, governmental communication, social media, political communication

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on the effective use of social media in political crisis communication, a crisis typology that has received relatively little academic attention. The communication strategy of the Ecuadorian Government on X and Instagram during the 2022 National Strike is used as a case study. The communication strategy is evaluated through content analysis, and characteristics of political crises are identified. Additionally, the study examines the role of X and Instagram in the Government’s crisis communication efforts and how different content formats contributed to message construction. The findings reveal that the Ecuadorian Government used social media to inform citizens about its actions and to garner public support. Furthermore, the study found that X and Instagram played a crucial role in shaping the official narrative of the crisis, although some inconsistencies were noted. The study concludes that social media can contribute to efforts in controlling the political narrative during crises by providing accurate interpretations and leveraging diverse digital formats and resources. This work also proposes a methodological framework for analysing political crisis communication in confrontational contexts on social media.

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Author Biographies

Cristian Lozano-Recalde, Pompeu Fabra University

Master’s degree in Political and Corporate Communication from the University of Navarra and a PhD Student in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. He is a digital communication consultant for companies and projects in Ecuador, as well as a professor of political crises module in the Master’s in Political and Institutional Communication at UPF Barcelona School of Management. He is member of the POLCOM-GRP research group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and was the coordinator of the research project Crisis and Emergency Communication in Social Media, granted and funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain. His main research lines include crisis and risk communication, the use of social media in political and institutional communication, and political discourse on social media.
Guillem Suau-Gomila, University of Lleida

PhD in Communication from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and professor and researcher in the Department of Catalan Philology and Communication at the University of Lleida (UDL). He has published extensively on political and institutional communication during crises and emergencies in reputable academic journals, contributed to numerous book chapters on the topic, and delivered over twenty presentations at national and international conferences. He was the principal investigator of the project Hate on Social Media: The Agora of Misogyny, funded by the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP). His lines of research focus on crisis and emergency communication, political communication, and hate speech on social media.
Carles Pont-Sorribes, Pompeu Fabra University

PhD in Social Communication, and is a researcher and Full Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He serves as the Academic Director of the Master’s program in Political and Institutional Communication at the UPF Barcelona School of Management and as the Director of the Ideograma UPF Chair of Political Communication and Democracy. His research interests include political communication, public opinion, risk and crisis communication, and journalism. He has made numerous scientific contributions, many of which have been published in prestigious academic journals. He is the author of seven books and over ten book chapters published by specialised communication publishers. He has participated in prominent competitive research projects (R&D&I) and delivered lectures at universities nationally and internationally. He has also conducted research stays at renowned international centres, including the Risk, Science, Health, and the Media research group led by Full Professor Jenny Kitzinger at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University.

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