From #15M to Podemos: Updating the Propaganda Model for Explaining Political Change in Spain and the Role of Digital Media

Abstract

The internationalization of the Propaganda Model, together with its applicability for the digital sphere, are two of the liveliest debates regarding the updating of the model for the 21st century. As a contribution to them, this chapter focuses on the model’s boundaries, those situations where it faces difficulties for apprehending some communication dynamics, like social media, countries with a particular political culture (like Spain) and contexts of crisis and instability (2008-2015). In such cases, an actual propaganda system’s limitations create an open way for grassroots digital activism in connection with increased personal agency of individuals who belong to the new transmedia star system, creating strategic potentialities for political change. Such flaws of the propaganda system are needed to explain not only the enormous cultural impact of the 15-M movement in Spain, but also the unprecedented electoral success of the party Podemos in its first national elections.