ABSTRACT
This paper identifies two different practices of relationship between populism and digital media in the early 21st century: one more horizontal the other vertical. Herein, it compared the cases of Bolsonaro in Brazil with Podemos in Spain, the former a right populism and the latter a leftist one, and how each one deals with digital media. Brazilian right populism operates a vertical social mobilization, based on messages in social networks like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter which inform the agenda to be followed by the electorate. It means that the electorate is a receptor and an agenda spreader. Also, Bolsonaro activates this technique from a fake news tactics much more crucial to the building of his narrative than any other movement. By contrast, Podemos’ Left populism acts tensioning a vertical tactic with the experimentation of horizontal and deliberative practices in social networks. Here, electorate is a receptor and an agenda builder.
Keywords:
populism; comparative politics; digital media