The Use and Management of Public Information in Social Media

The increase of political disaffection in Spain, as is occurring in many western democracies across the world, coincides with a growing vindication of democracy on the part of the citizenry, which translates to a demand for more governmental transparency and access to information. With this in mind, this chapter explores the availability of information in local public administrations on social media. The study analyses the presence of town and city councils throughout Andalusia on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, examining how these media are managed and their effects, by studying the content and resources provided to the citizens for interacting with the institutions. The results revealed that although the selected councils tried to adopt these new information channels, they are still far from taking full advantage of the possibilities the new technologies could provide.

The Social Media Politicians

Social media brings to the forefront two very important factors to today's politics: the prominent role of the internet and the importance of personalisation which is closely tied to a tendency of political candidates to overexpose their private lives. This does not mean that the candidate becomes more relevant than the political party or the ideological platforms thereof, but the interest tends to fall on the candidate's lifestyle; on their personal characteristics and their most intimate surroundings, which blurs the line between the public and private spheres. Online profiles are used as a showcase for the public agenda of the politician at the same time as they gather, on a daily basis, the thoughts, tastes and leisure time activities of the candidates. This chapter offers a reflection of the ways in which political leaders develop their digital narratives, and how they use the social media environment to approach citizens.

The Role of Prosumers in the Interactive and Digital Processes of Public Relations

Public relations describe strategic processes of relationship management that organizations that seek excellence promote with their stakeholders. The purpose of these processes is to generate and maintain a dialogic communication system through which to generate a climate of reciprocity based on the search for common interests, agreements, and expectations. Under this approach, this chapter analyzes the figure of the influencer as a new category of emerging stakeholder, an opinion leader 2.0 capable of generating a state of opinion in the digital community that transcends the general traditional public opinion, surpassing the traditional model two-step flow of communication.

The Book Trailer as a Publishing House Promotional Tool

When referring to the cultural industry, it can be said that literature is a product like any other, a product that can be sold. As such, publishing companies seek to make their products profitable. In order to sell books, physical books or e-books, publishing companies resort to marketing them as if they were any other product. The same concepts used to sell a car are used to sell a book, although the strategy and tactic does not have to be the same. In the continuous change and evolution that society undergoes, promotion techniques and, in particular, those related to literature, must be updated in order to overcome market fluctuations, changes in consumer behaviour and, in this same line, adapt to technologies. In this sense, marketing does not usually make distinctions in the type of products or services when selling them, treating them all as goods or services that can be sold and, therefore, applying the strategies of the four variables of the marketing mix.

Televised Sporting Events

The second screen has become a new resource for accessing information in addition to what you can see on television. This allows for an enhanced viewing experience through the generation of new services, apps, and changes in the production of content. Sporting events, especially large ones that are broadcast live, have especially developed this innovation. This chapter examines the distinctive features that the second screen contributes to televised sporting events, considering the type of production as well as the effects that are generated in the reception of the content and the alteration to the way the treatment the audiovisual content may receive. To achieve this, real cases from the Spanish context are studied, such as two major cycling events: La Vuelta 2017 (rtve.es) and the Tour de France 2019 (rtve.es and Eurosport Player App).

Electoral Propaganda Through Televised Fiction

The third golden age of television, in consonance with the increase of the phenomenon transmedia, has coincided with disseminating the message on social media. Spectators themselves are linking the fictional discourse on television with events that are happening in the news, especially through humor. This tendency has also been embraced by political leaders, who use memes and other productions to draw parallels and connect them with their ideas. In the Spanish context, the campaign around the last general elections of April 28, 2019 has taken place together with the beginning of the broadcasting of the Game of Thrones' last season. This has provoked the adoption of its fictional discourse by the main political leaders, who have also used other fictional references for their campaign. Hence, the aim of this chapter is studying the connection between the political ideas and the fictional product in the online party communication.

An Epistemology of the Event for the Digital Media

Since the end of the twentieth century, game studies have concentrated on epistemological positions seemingly unable to make significant distinctions between traditional games and video games. This approach has hindered the development of a post-modern ontology for decades, in a medium—video games—that is decidedly postmodern. This chapter proposes going beyond the mechanistic notion of considering observable reality as a combination of a determined state of things, which is a prevalent feature in today's game studies. To achieve this, the author argues from the Deleuzian notion of the “event.” When referring to the concept of the “ideal game,” as proposed by Deleuze, is intended to enunciate an epistemology that describes the implicit potentialities of digital media in general. The application of the epistemology would comprise memetic and viral statements, generative aesthetics and the forms of video games themselves.

The Handmaid's Tale (2017) or Hulu's Major Investment in Great Storytelling

Hulu knew what they were doing when they bet on the underlying story of The Handmaid's Tale (2017-), which manifests the importance of storytelling in the creation of modern myths. The series directly appeals to the human need for identity, belonging, and redemption. Based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, The Handmaid's Tale is a depiction of a dystopian society, characterised by an absence of rights and freedoms. It has become a chilling political commentary focusing attention on the control of women's fertility, the objectification of women, religious fanaticism, women's roles in the persecution of other women in a patriarchal system, the persecution of homosexuality, and hyper-vigilance.

An Analysis of Netflix España Campaigns

Since entering the Spanish market in October 2015, Netflix has engaged in several advertising campaigns, deployed online, which are designed to appeal to some aspects of Spanish culture. The obvious aim has been to promote Netflix programming and to establish a connection to the Spanish audience. The strategy, which alludes to recognisable elements from the culture of the target audience, has been developed to promote both international productions as well as national ones, in which cultural references are reflected in the context in which they emerge. This chapter analyses the trajectory of Netflix Spain's marketing campaigns over the last three years, focusing on Paquita Salas as a case study, and determining to what extent the advertising exploits current local social and cultural situations in order to gain more engagement on the part of the spectator.

Post-Truths and Fake News in Disinformation Contexts

This chapter analyses the concept of post-truth related to the circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in the formation of public opinion than emotional appeals and personal beliefs, and the subsequent projection of this phenomenon in social media, as various studies have demonstrated that some fake news stories generate more engagement from users than vetted reporting from reliable news sources. This will start from a general introduction and an associated theoretical reflection, and then focus on the case of Venezuela and its recent historical circumstances in order to analyze how fake news circulates in this country stimulated by a context of widespread disinformation.