The visibility of the financial scandal of ‘Panama Papers’ on Twitter: the case of Sebastián Piñera in Chile

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the discussion about the role of online media in cases of public interest, in this case a financial political scandal (Thompson, 2001). For this, it was inquired into how it becomes visible (Thompson, 2001 & 2005), through Twitter, the link between the presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera and the scandal over tax havens, in particular, the case of the ‘Panama Papers’. The months of the presidential candidacy were set as the time limit, concluding in the first round of the presidential elections in Chile (between March 21 and November 19, 2017). It was concluded that on Twitter the scandal is visible through three main acts: discredit, face and take position, and two secondary acts, placed between them: unmask and federate. In this sense, social networks allow us to establish a space for questioning current democracies, for interaction with other “traditional” communication media, and ultimately to debate issues that affect citizens, as in this case the creation of Companies in tax havens by a former president and current presidential candidate. As Cardon (2010) points out, Internet expands the public space, transforming the nature of democracy.

Keywords

• redes sociales
• Twitter
• escándalo financiero
• ‘panama papers’
• actos de habla.