Elecciones Generales y redes sociales en el caso de España, 2011 General Elections and social networks in the case of Spain, 2011

Abstract

General Elections of November 20, 2011 marked a turning point in the use of social networks in Spain for political purposes: on the one hand, was the first time the major parties decided to use social networks in their election campaigns, and on the other, all studies show that small parties won on this field. Given that “the smalls” reached unexpected good election results, therefore we must examine the question of a possible relationship between votes won and presence in social networks. It is also important that the vast majority of messages against politicians came from users participants in the 15-M Movement (“The Outraged”). From their personal accounts they proposed different hashtags attacking the two major political parties: the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party (PSOE).