Percepción de los estudiantes de la carrera de Comunicación de la UTMACH, sobre el debate presidencial de la segunda vuelta del proceso electoral 2025

Abstract

This research analyzes the perception of communication students on the presidential debate of the second round, considering the influence of traditional media and content generated in social networks, and aims to analyze the perception of students of the communication career of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Technical University of Machala on the presidential debate of the second round of the electoral process 2025. The methodology of this research has a mixed approach that has as data collection techniques a structured survey directed to 132 students and a semi-structured interview directed to two experts in political communication. The study allowed identifying the preferred channels of information access, showing that digital platforms, especially TikTok and X had greater emotional and discursive impact than television. The results show a critical perception regarding the candidates' performance, the clarity of their proposals and the relevance of the debate format, highlighting that emotional language and gestures had more influence than rational arguments in the students' assessment. The interviews confirmed the absence of local issues in the discourse and evidenced the primacy of symbolic narratives. It is concluded that youth political consumption is mediated by emotionality, the digital environment and information fragmentation.