community managers and the unveiling of political being in socio-digital networks

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the role of community managers in the construction of public images of politicians in socio-digital networks and the strategic use – a neoliberal term coined by political marketing – of signifiers and language to position them positively with their followers and distinguish them from the competition. The text questions whether politicians are still capable of revealing themselves as truly representative characters of their political instances or, on the contrary, they are communicational products – digital objects – created by those who have the task of managing their networks. In the text I analyze whether in the acts of showing themselves or appearing of politicians in socio-digital networks, they obey the authentic totality of a partisan self or emerging political marketing strategies created to position a false image.