Digital political communication through a gender lens: discourses, themes, and inclusive language. A case study of two gender-balanced elections in Andalusia: 2018 and 2022

Abstract

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Electoral campaigns are particularly significant moments for identifying the available political options. Social media campaigns have become universal, and every candidate seeks to showcase their proposals and distinct political personality. The main goal of this article is to examine electoral political communication on social media platforms through a gender perspective. We analyze the messages posted on X (formerly Twitter) by candidates during the last two election campaigns in Andalusia. With a total sample of 2,196 posts, we applied quantitative content analysis and binary logistic regression, in addition to qualitative discourse análisis to a subset of the sample. We aim to identify how, where, when and by whom issues pertaining to women as a collective, feminism, gender, or the use of egalitarian language are introduced into two campaigns characterized by gender-balanced representation of candidates. Our findings indicate a limited use of inclusive language and infrequent foregrounding of women in discourse. Nonetheless, gender is a significant explanatory factor for a more inclusive communication style toward women, alongside an explicit emphasis on addressing policies affecting women.

Keywords

• electoral campaigns
• political communication
• gender-inclusive language
• Andalusia
• gender perspective
• social networks