Mediatized Sapiens: Communicational knowledge

Before, during and after. The contemporary construction of events 123 3.3 Before: the pre-construction of the event Mediatization Our analysis identified, weeks before the event, activity in different media systems regarding the intervention that the president was going to carry out. On the one hand, professionals from the mass media in their digital versions began to publish notes that tried to anticipate what the president was going to express6. It was speculated and reported that he was going to refer to the economic situation, retirement, and abortion. On the other hand, different hashtags were established on Instagram and Twitter networks, giving visibility to current strains and po- larizations in Argentinian society on both political and cultural issues7. Po litical dimension: three hashtags focused our atten- tion. Two of them, which supported the president but originated from different actors/speakers, were put into circulation days before the event on social media. One of them, #TodosConAlberto, was generated by La Cámpora, the political space commanded by Máximo Kirchner, the son of former President Cristina Fernán- dez de Kirchner. The other, #AsambleaLegislativa2020, was established by the official accounts of the Government House (on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube8). Although both hashtags expressed groups that participated in the same political space, Frente de Todos, the difference between one and the other was significant because President Alberto Fernández took office as a representative of the unity; but his leadership of the political coalition was still limited and the power of the movement led by the former President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was very significant. In this context, a hashtag that clearly expressed the other pole, Juntos por el Cambio, was #ElLiderEsMacri. Cultural dimension: regarding abortion, there was a polarization mainly between two hashtags, #AbortoLegal and #AbortoEsGrieta (“grieta” means division, polarization in Argen- 6 Noe Manso and Verónica Ordóñez analyzed print mass media. 7 The analysis was carried out by David Tarraborelli, Juan Pablo Sokil, and Veróni- ca Ordóñez (2020). 8 Analysis carried out by Rocío Rovner.

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