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Virtual Political Communication in Bulgaria



Author(s)

Ivanka Mavrodieva

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DOI:10.17265/2160-6579/2014.12.003

Sofia University ―St. Kliment Ohridski‖, Sofia, Bulgaria

Social networks are the result of a couple of circumstances such as the current development of communication technology and the improvement of the opportunities for communication, access to new ideas, web-based information, electronic resources and database serving millions of people all over the world. Social networks have increased their public influence, which contain videotaped speeches and presentations. Multimodality has become a characteristic feature of contemporary political virtual communication. Bulgarian politicians appreciate the Internet as a tool for building popularity in its wealth of features, forms, and modes. Communicative tools and techniques have changed. The forms of the Bulgarian political communication found in the virtual environment such as sites, blogs, social networks, video clips, virtual forums, etc. are heterogeneous. Bulgarian citizens accept the Internet as a tool for increased political and social activities. Civil oratory, which is seen as a mechanism for efficient organizing of public events during election campaigns, protests, and demonstrations, is also present in the social networks. The citizens use a combination of verbal and visual elements; they are bloggers and participants in virtual political forums and actively participate in the spread of all kinds of forms of the social networks. They take part in the street demonstrations and organize performances; they ridicule politicians through posters and cartoons published online. Verbal and visual messages of the citizens come to real life during the protests and to virtual life in the social networks. The polyphony of social networks is a manifestation of virtual civil communication where the citizens in their virtual projection as netizens build up a new complex model of communication.

virtual political communication, sites, blogs, social networks, virtual political forums