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Twitter and public opinion. A critical view for an educational outlook

Abstract:

In this article we reflect, from a theoretical and critical perspective, on how public opinion is currently shaped by social networks, focusing on the case of Twitter. Going beyond a purely sociological or factual concept of public opinion, we will offer arguments for expanding its meaning while proposing a model of deliberative democracy. In order to do so, we use some well-known constructs from the field of social communication, such as the spiral of silence or digital niches, which provide a referent for interpreting the phenomenon of social networks from a critical hermeneutics. The analysis of Twit-ter as a platform for public opinion also aims to provide the keys to building an educational outlook, understanding that one of the purposes of this area in a democracy is to educate citizens about digitally formed currents of opinion, especially those supporting populist political movements and aggravated by the spread of fake news. After delving into the socio-political dimension of social networks such as Twitter, we conclude by proposing a normative concept of interactive public opinion, a proposal that will be specified in a set of educational competences at the epistemological and civic ethical level relating to the democratic use of social media.