Effects of new media technologies on political communication in Venezuela

Abstract

This research analyzes the effects that new media technologies have generated on political communication in the Venezuelan political system during the period between 1999 and 2014. To achieve this, the objectives were to define the concept of political communication, to compare the functioning of old and new media and to characterize political communication in Venezuela during the period under study. The research, of documentary type, is developed through a descriptive, deconstructive and historical-deductive approach, based on the review and analysis of printed and digital bibliohemerographic materials. It shows how political communication is advancing in the construction of a digital public sphere that already agglutinates almost half of the Venezuelan electorate, although not all of them are producers and consumers (prosumers) of political information. It is also argued how the State advances in the control of a recognized communicational hegemony, after large reference media tended to fail to comply with the normative theory of social responsibility. The research allows concluding that among the effects of the new media technologies on political communication in the Venezuelan system, the exponential growth of political messages in circulation, the still incipient incursion of cyberpolitics in electoral campaigns, the reconfiguration of traditional media in the light of the changes, the loss of the monopoly of the old media in agenda setting and the empowerment of the infocitizen stand out.