In recent decades, we have seen a significant growth and change in the methods and platforms used by political forces to communicate with their activists and voters. The era of digitalisation and public discussion on social networks has gained significant relevance because of citizens' new habits of consumption and presence in the virtual world and the technological advances that have taken place, particularly through Artificial Intelligence.
In the context of the emergence of a polarised society, there has been continuous, professional and exhaustive use of these platforms by radical or anti-systemic political parties, as an alternative to a smaller presence in the traditional media or with the aim of gaining the support of certain audiences that are more likely to be found and participate in public discussions on social networks (veil of anonymity).
However, this does not mean that parties have abandoned the use of models similar to the party press, which had its heyday in the first half of the 20th century, as powerful vehicles for propaganda and the transmission of political messages. In fact, many political forces continue to use the party press, today more centred on direct communication with their militants.
In recent years, Chega has established itself as the third largest political force in Portugal, achieving notable growth in parliamentary representation (50 deputies in the March 2024 legislative elections, compared to 8 deputies in 2022 and a parliamentary debut with a seat in 2019), and is the party with the largest presence on social media. As a complementary mechanism to this presence, in June 2022 it launched its newspaper ‘Folha Nacional’, which has been published uninterruptedly since then (weekly print edition, and currently daily digital publication).
The aim of this research is to analyse the content published in the newspaper and how the topics are approached, contributing to the dissemination of Chega's political message and the respective influence of these stories on militants. The analysis focuses on the year 2024, marked by the early parliamentary elections in March, the European elections in May and the intense debate on the State Budget in Portugal, with an unstable parliamentary configuration.
The approach uses content analysis, a model based on the contributions of Berelson (1952), Bardin (1977) and Benoit (2022), and aims to contribute to the study of how political parties communicate and how their strategies are decisive in consolidating their positions, in a process that makes it possible to anticipate degrees of interaction and involvement of militants and citizens with the respective party force.
