Being online is no longer enough. It is necessary to pay attention to the quality of communication, clarity or transparency.
Portugal is a country with a electorate very aged. Those who will vote more are older voters.
It is no coincidence that one or another candidate for the presidency of the Republic has been reaching out to older voters over the last few days.
Last year, a poll from the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation showed that the most young people are one of the three groups that “run away” more to the polls on election day; the other two are those with less education and those on the right.
What is done in Portugal to convince the most voters young people?
Coimbra was one of the four cities that, in the 2024 European Championships, had young people as “drivers” in the development of policies and information campaigns around the elections. Changing the role of young people in politics, giving them power as democratic citizens, highlighted the .
The presented other paths: in-person events for direct contact, personalized gifts, emails with personalized messages and, of course, being on social media.
But that list also included another point: paying attention to the content of what is published.
It’s just that Being on social media is no longer enough for young people in Portugal – who are more demanding with politicians’ communication.
IPAM – Portuguese Institute of Marketing Administration carried out a study that analyzes the relationship between digital political communication and young people’s civic involvement.
Young people now pay more attention to quality of digital political communicationlike clarity ea transparency of messages; is more important than frequency or online visibility.
According to this study, 67.2% of young people consider digital political information essential for their civic engagement – but only 27.6% trust the political information that circulates on digital platforms.
There is a widespread idea (58.5%) that misinformation that comes from social media, with less than credible content.
And there is another problem: the programs two games. They are not clear, for 35% of young people questioned.
The same study shows, on the other hand, that young people have an increasingly critical maturity. And that, despite the previous paragraph, there are more and more young people trusting political information.
And there is a motivating number: 88.9% of young people say they have voted in the last elections legislative, last year.
Looking ahead to the presidential elections on the 18th, the main risk for candidates and parties “is not the absence on social media, but a presence that is not very enlightening”.
“Strategies focused solely on the volume of content or the multiplication of platforms tend to have limited effects among an attentive, informed and demanding young electorate. To mobilize this segment, it is not enough to be online: it is crucial to communicate with clarity, consistency and transparency”, summarizes professor and author Catarina Domingos, in a statement sent to ZAP.
Or, returning to the study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, the authors recommend encouraging civic duty in schools, starting from primary education.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
