Through the networks, Milei reached the hands of voters with only two words: caste “the enemy”) and dollarization (“hope”, with the figure of the lion. The result was not “the punishment vote” but a campaign that included the use of new technologies.
In 1992, Bill Clinton’s election campaign installed the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid”; Today, observing the unexpected result of the PASO we could say: “It’s the middle, stupid.” It’s the networks, and the way you manage them. Marshall McLuhan, a visionary for his time, said in 1964 that the medium we use to give a message has a symbolic charge in itself, “the medium is the message.”
The media function as an extension of the senses and mind. Nowadays, we can see it clearly on social networks. Each platform in which we participate is a reflection of who we are as users and as political subjects. Artificial Intelligence mediates our ability to think, because we build our political vision through devices. Twitter (now X), Tik-Tok, Instagram are a synthesis of today’s social world.
Politics in the age of artificial intelligence Many politicians remained stuck in the importance of the content they post on networks, as happens in traditional media, they did not learn the language of these new media. They use them only for their ability to go viral, without seeing that behind them lies the key to understanding the current voter: few characters, visual impact, direct message.
Obama was the first politician to understand this, using social networks massively as part of his campaign and his political communication.
New technologies eliminate intermediaries. The sender speaks directly to the receiver, one by one, even if there are millions at a time. This produces a message free of the “politically correct” filter that acts as self-censorship; There is no “Twitter ideology,” as there is in every traditional media. In a dynamic where there is immediate access to data, the margins of the ideologization of reality are reduced. The same message manages to penetrate segments of all kinds, because it reaches the user directly in a language that they understand and use every day. Adapting to the digital ecosystem allows us to win elections.
Trump is another example of the use of new technologies as a means of communication. “Twitter is the message”, that was the secret. Every afternoon, through Twitter, he posted the next day’s agenda outside the covers of the big newspapers, without ideological filters. In the same way, in the recent campaign in our country, we are observing the impact of the change in the communication era.
Especially in vulnerable economic and social contexts, people vote where they feel identified and who give hope for total change. Alfonsín’s hyperinflation brought a Menem with sideburns, a white suit and a Rioja tune; a total outsider. The mortgage crisis in the USA brought another, a stranger to the Republican Party, blending in with the Midwest and denouncing the Washington-Wall Street society. His message was “Make America great again”, accompanied by the American hat. Four words. Milei campaigned for her on the networks, deeply reaching the hands of voters with a message of only two words: caste – definition of the enemy – and dollarization – hope -, and the figure of the lion. While some reduce the voter’s intention and the sagacity of the campaign to a “punishment vote”, they miss the most important thing, the updated reading of politics when understanding the message contained in new communication technologies.
