ABSTRACT
The southern Spanish region of Andalusia, which has been governed between 2019 and 2022 by a coalition of libertarian, conservative, and ultra-right parties, may illustrate the political conduct which characterized the first wave of the pandemic, as well as the use of social media as a propaganda tool which has ethical implications. This chapter presents a systematic and longitudinal content analysis which studies the communication that took place between mainstream Andalusian political parties and the citizenry on the video-sharing site YouTube. To check the kind of messages conveyed by parties in this context of crisis, analytical variables include the frequency of digital activity, the way interactivity is being implemented, the number of videos that have to do with the pandemic, the frequency with which communication deals with pandemic-related goals, and the COVID-related topics that are being talked about. Results indicate that Andalusian political parties use social media to broadcast information and propaganda, as well as to engage in self-interested political fighting, rather than to interact with citizens, even in a devastating global crisis like the current one. These results are discussed on the grounds of the ethical implications of propaganda.
