Twitter and public opinion. A critical view for an educational outlook Twitter y opinión pública. Una perspectiva crítica para un horizonte educativo Vicent GOZÁLVEZ , PhD. Associate Professor. Universitat de València ([email protected]). Vicent GOZÁLVEZ, Luis Miguel ROMERO-RODRÍGUEZ and Camilo LARREA-OÑA Luis Miguel ROMERO-RODRÍGUEZ , PhD. Visiting Lecturer. Universidad Espíritu Santo, Ecuador ([email protected]). Camilo LARREA-OÑA . Consultant. Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales, Ecuador ([email protected]). Abstract: ter as a platform for public opinion also aims 403-419 2019, September-December n. 274, 77, year In this article we reflect, from a the- to provide the keys to building an educational oretical and critical perspective, on how outlook, understanding that one of the pur- public opinion is currently shaped by social poses of this area in a democracy is to educate networks, focusing on the case of Twitter. citizens about digitally formed currents of Going beyond a purely sociological or fac- opinion, especially those supporting populist tual concept of public opinion, we will offer political movements and aggravated by the arguments for expanding its meaning while spread of fake news. After delving into the española de pedagogía revista proposing a model of deliberative democracy. socio-political dimension of social networks In order to do so, we use some well-known such as Twitter, we conclude by proposing a constructs from the field of social communi- normative concept of interactive public opin- cation, such as the spiral of silence or digital ion, a proposal that will be specified in a set niches, which provide a referent for interpret- of educational competences at the epistemo- ing the phenomenon of social networks from logical and civic ethical level relating to the a critical hermeneutics. The analysis of Twit- democratic use of social media. Revision accepted: 2018-10-20. This is the English version of an article originally printed in Spanish in issue 274 of the revista española de pedagogía. For this reason, the abbreviation EV has been added to the page numbers. Please, cite this article as follows: Gozálvez, V., Romero-Rodríguez, L. M., & Larrea-Oña, C. (2019). Twitter y opinión pública. Una perspectiva crítica para un horizonte educativo | Twitter and public opinion. A critical view for an educational outlook. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 77 (274), 403-419. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP77-3-2019-04 https://revistadepedagogia.org/ ISSN: 0034-9461 (Print), 2174-0909 (Online) 403 EV Vicent GOZÁLVEZ, Luis Miguel ROMERO-RODRÍGUEZ and Camilo LARREA-OÑA Keywords: public opinion, social media, de opinión pública pretende ofrecer las claves Twitter, democracy, interactivity, citizenship, para construir un horizonte educativo, enten- educational competences. diendo que uno de los fines de la educación en democracia es el de formar a la ciudada- nía en relación con las corrientes de opinión Resumen: digitalmente conformadas, especialmente las En este artículo reflexionamos, desde una que sustentan movimientos políticos de corte perspectiva teórica y crítica, sobre el modo en populista y agravadas por la propagación de que la opinión pública es configurada actual- noticias falsas (fake news). Tras ahondar en la mente por las redes sociales, centrándonos en dimensión sociopolítica de redes sociales como el caso de Twitter. Más allá de un concepto Twitter, en el presente texto concluimos pro- puramente sociológico o fáctico de opinión pú- poniendo un concepto normativo de opinión blica, aportaremos argumentos para ampliar pública interactiva, propuesta que se concre- su significado en defensa de un modelo de de- tará en un conjunto de competencias educa- mocracia deliberativa. Para ello, nos servimos tivas a nivel epistemológico y ético-cívico en de algunos constructos reputados en el ámbito relación con el uso democrático de las redes de la comunicación social, como el de la es- sociales. piral del silencio o el de los nichos digitales, los cuales ayudan a interpretar el fenómeno Descriptores: opinión pública, redes sociales, de las redes sociales desde una hermenéutica Twitter, democracia, interactividad, ciudada- crítica. El análisis de Twitter como plataforma nía, competencias educativas. perceived role of social media in these po- 1. Introduction. Social networks, litical processes is changing as a result of public opinion and new populism Donald Trump becoming president of the In our communicative environment, USA, especially given his intensive use the impact of social media in creating cur- of Twitter (@realDonaldTrump) in the rents of socio-political opinion or, to put it electoral campaign and in his presidential another way, on shaping a social state of communiqués with a national and inter- opinion with strong repercussions in the national reach (52.033.110 followers and field of institutional politics, is ever more 37.575 tweets as of May 2018). revista española de pedagogía revista 403-419 2019, September-December 274, n. 77, year apparent. Perhaps the first international confirmation of the importance of social The case of Trump is not an isolated media in democratic elections occurred phenomenon, as Europe has also under- in the campaign that first took Barack gone similar political trends with a digital Obama to the White House. However, the impact on public opinion, from the rise 404 EV Twitter and public opinion. A critical view for an educational outlook of xenophobic nationalism in France (@ consumed by audiences more than any FN_officiel) to the campaign for and tri- other conventional type of media when ob- umph of Brexit in the United Kingdom taining political information. (@BrexitCentral), or the emergence of independence movements in Spain (@in- Social media are a paradigmatic and dependencia; @DUI, etc.), with a populist highly-celebrated model of horizontal style of political communication, that is to communication, and have been present say, communication that exalts a homog- in many social and political citizen move- eneous and closed “us”, moving towards a ments in recent years (Ibarra, Martí, & discourse based on hatred of what is differ- Gomà, 2002; Dahlgren, 2005; Hindman, ent (Jagers & Walgrave, 2007). 2008; Castells, 2009; Basave, 2013; Baek, 2015). There is ample proof for their edu- Circumstances like these invite us to cational potential as a space for finding reconsider the meaning and scope of the and sharing information, or for collab- expression public opinion, a revision that orating interactively in the construc- leads to an exploration of the different cur- tion of knowledge (Gozálvez, 2013; Tur, rent models of democracy and representa- Marín, & Carpenter, 2017; Vázquez-Ca- tion (MacPherson, 2003; Camps, 2004; no, López Meneses, & Sevillano García, Greppi, 2012). In other words, what is 2017). Twitter is used as an interactive 403-419 2019, September-December n. 274, 77, year the path of current democratic systems in platform to channel and organise collec- which the acts of online public opinion are tive movements that undoubtedly help as intense as they are new in the political empower citi zens (Saura, Muñoz-Moreno, history of modern societies? Luengo-Navas, & Martos, 2017) and allow direct participation in public matters of Talking about public opinion on so- national and international interest (Kah- cial media is not limited to discussion of ne, Lee, & Feezell, 2012; Castells, 2008). española de pedagogía revista shifts in opinion on Twitter. However, as Anstead and O’Loughlin note (2015), But with the emergence of political Twitter is an especially interesting tool leaders with a strong social media pres- for measuring public opinion given that ence and clear ability to manipulate them this platform’s microblogging format al- in their favour, networks like Twitter can lows data of socio-political importance to stop being technologies for parallel connec- be easily accessible on a massive scale and tivity that help deepen democracy. Twitter immediately. can become a new medium for the segmen- tation of opinions with a strong emotional Indeed, some research — including component (Cortina, 2016), making little pieces by Barberá, Jost, Nagler, Tucker, contribution to the democratic regenera- & Bonneau (2015), Conover et al. (2011), tion of a society, especially if social media Gruzd & Roy (2014), Hong & Kim (2016), enters into the dynamic of the “spiral of and Lee, Shin, & Hong (2017) — concludes silence”. But what is the scope and signifi- that social media, especially Twitter, are cance of this hypothesis? 405 EV Vicent GOZÁLVEZ, Luis Miguel ROMERO-RODRÍGUEZ and Camilo LARREA-OÑA In this article we will analyse this informed, and in which citizens engage and other questions, using a critical her- (participate) in dialogue concerning the meneutics methodology (Arteta, 2016; questions that affect the community Habermas, 2010; Conill, 2008), based on (Habermas, 1994; Dahlgreen, 2005). The the interpretation and rereading of texts second, as a social phenomenon that reacts in accordance with practical criteria (so- to psychological dynamics such as fear of cial, ethical, and political), and with a dual solitude or exclusion (Noëlle-Neumann, objective: (1) investigating the new rela- 1984), or instead responds to fluctuating tionship between social media (especially interests only worth recording through Twitter) and public opinion; (2) offering polling techniques, such as the famous a valid theoretical framework for educa- Gallup (1939)