Ball Room Decorations

Can social networks shape public opinion? Who really directed? Urueña

Here's a debate that continues to gain momentum in our world dominated by information overload, by the spectacular development of social networks and constantly changes and rearrangements observed in public opinion, thereby impact on political behavior. A debate also is justified when there are few people in the cyber landscape allude to the growing impact of Internet in politics , considering it a tool for mobilizing mass, able to articulate the reactions of people geographically dispersed and, instantly, link their positions and intentions in an effort to also immediately shared projects, sometimes with great resonance in the public space. Not surprisingly, therefore, Abdur Chowdhury, one of the leaders of the research team of Twitter, has even suggested that it would be very difficult to understand the trends that govern the world without the help of Twitter.

However, to what extent we can say that the chain reactions that occurred as a result of debate and vote on Sinde Law on 21 December, when the website of the Congress of Deputies had an unusual attack denial of service, can pass, with the intensity that his players would like, in orientation of civic attitudes? How Anonymous initiatives such as AB, who uses Facebook, they can change the perception of a problem, or how to interpret the purpose reagents through its virtual protests, as alleged in the case report? How effective is, ultimately, these very dense patterns of information flows in which thousands come together friends and supporters, and at the time they become powerful sources of information on their shareholders, not to mention the fact that often limit, when no substitute, contacts and personal relationships?

delicate topic with many gray areas, the said public opinion is still controversial, unresolved . Perhaps the matter could be settled by saying, as Pierre Bourdieu does, that "public opinion does not exist", but the truth is that social and political behaviors do reflect mainstream practice guidelines, Options bias one way or another, As democracy becomes public opinion-be it so or otherwise - on popular will, endowed with real political impact.

The reality is, in fact, that this view is built on a consistent basis, supported by large flows of information and opinion whose origin is nothing accidental or incidental but rather appears as the result of a gradually built from messages, thoughts, ideas, debates and content, grounded both in the particular experience of each and the mechanisms responsible for the information load, largely controlled by media lobbyists who manipulate at will or oriented in the direction of most interest to the dominant groups. And that is the importance of public opinion is so important that those who have interests to defend strive to influence it through communication strategies increasingly sophisticated and subtle.

Against this dominant mode of intervention in the information system, powerfully organized and structured large-scale, understand - is a simple point of view - that Social networks play a minor role in most cases, if not in all (at least so far) has been limited to convene mobilization campaigns more or less successful, with a strong technological impact, but with low impact medium term in the formation of the criteria that shape public opinion true, and that's what matters, political dimension.