SIMULACRIZATION OF POLITICAL SUBJECTS
SIMULACRIZATION OF POLITICAL SUBJECTS

Author(s): Iuliia Chaplinskaya
Subject(s): Politics, Politics and communication, Politics and society
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Simulacrization; political subjects; new technologies; political actors; digital politics
Summary/Abstract: The technological development of the world has led to the transformation of relations between politicians and voters. More and more candidates are using social networks, mobile applications, and even video games to advertise their campaigns. Such features of communication, on the one hand, "separate" political leaders from their supporters, bringing the screen between (TV, mobile phone, etc.) and on the other – political information is spread around the world in minutes and every potential political follower has access to it. New technologies have a significant impact not only on communication between political leaders and their electorate but also on the politics themselves. Because both technologies – Television and Digital – can adjust images, make appropriate color and sound accents, apply filters, create the illusion of the presence of a political leader in every home through parasociality, and so on. All these technological possibilities distort the image of the political candidate himself/herself and he/she appears to the audience in an "improved form", selling himself/selling herself as marketers sell expensive branded goods. The purpose of the article is to present the author's model, designed to show the changes that have taken place with political actors with the development of new technologies. In this authorial model, I insist on the postulate that politics with the involvement of new technologies in their political campaigns are simulated and lose to some extent their human roots. This happens because voters do not have direct access to political candidates, and interact with them only through screens.

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