Digital Political Communication, the Emotionalization of the Vote and Polarization in the 2025 Ecuadorian Presidential Run-Off

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_20How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Political Communication; Social Media; Public Opinion; Political Behavior; Ecuador

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between political communication strategies and voting decisions during the 2025 Ecuadorian presidential run-off. Using a mixed-methods approach with a non-experimental, cross-sectional and descriptive-interpretative design, the study integrated surveys of 471 citizens, interviews with experts in political communication and systematic observation of the mandatory presidential debate. The results show that the campaign was structured around strategies of contrast, emotional appeals and short digital content, shifting the focus away from policy proposals. Social media was the main source of political information, although family conversations retained a significant role as spaces for validation. The public perceived the campaign as largely negative and lacking in transparency. Furthermore, fear of the opposing candidate emerged as a decisive factor in voter volatility. It is concluded that emotionalization, polarization and digital mediatization had a significant impact on electoral behavior.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Verónica Palacios
AU  - Victor Soto
AU  - Daniela Gallardo
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
TI  - Digital Political Communication, the Emotionalization of the Vote and Polarization in the 2025 Ecuadorian Presidential Run-Off
BT  - Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2026 (ICOMTA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 204
EP  - 219
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_20
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_20
ID  - Palacios2026
ER  -