Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the Spanish Army and Security Forces as actors and as a discursive resource in the Spanish Government’s communication during the Covid-19 crisis and covers two complementary questions. On one hand, the presence of the military, police and civil guards in the media and in the daily press conferences of the Spanish Government’s Coronavirus Crisis Committee and, on the other, tweets by the main political protagonists of the crisis in Spain: the leaders of the five largest national parties (PSOE, PP, Vox, Unidas Podemos and Ciudadanos) and the presidents of four autonomous communities (Catalonia, Madrid, the Valencian Community and the Basque Country) who also played a particularly important role in managing the crisis. The timeframe covered is from March 15 (start of the state of emergency) to April 25 (final day in which the military and security forces participated in the daily press conferences of the Coronavirus Crisis Committee). The methodology applied involves a qualitative analysis of the appearances by military and security forces in the media and in the press conferences of the aforementioned Committee, which allows us to outline a complex narrative of the events. A content analysis of the Twitter accounts is also performed to show the presence of these groups and the warlike language in their messages. The objectives are to balance the Government’s communication strategy in relation to the presence of the military, the Civil Guard and the National Police: internally (at press conferences) and externally (in the media and, in particular, in speeches by political leaders).

Abstract

Social networks have become a major communication channel for organizations, including those focused on security and defense. This article specifically examines how the Spanish Armed Forces and State Security Forces communicate on Twitter, with the aim of analyzing the factors that influence engagement with their tweets. A model validated with a sample of 14,540 tweets shows the role that a series of variables related to rational and emotional communication attributes has. These variables are estimated utilizing techniques such as Python and VBA. Subsequently, a logistic model using IBM SSPS estimates the effect of each variable on the probability that a tweet will lead to more or less engagement. The results show that followers of military accounts, such as the Army, tend to have higher rates of interaction than followers of other accounts, even though military accounts have fewer total followers than police accounts. Furthermore, the results confirm the importance of using both rational and emotional stimuli for a message to be effective. To increase engagement, information provided by organizations should use elements such as hyperlinks, emojis, and photographs, and refer to topics that appeal to individuals’ emotions, such as patriotism.