Comunicazione politica online: un percorso a due velocità

The development of online political communication has profoundly changed the way we enter into a relationship with political reality. Some features of the Internet allow us to benefit from political communication by using a fast, intuitive, superficial and emotion-based way of thinking. However, we can also rely on another, slower, more reflective, in-depth way of thinking; under appropriate conditions (time available, motivation and competence) we can activate this thinking mode when we use online political communication. Focusing on how citizens use online political communication to acquire political news and relate to politicians, this paper will show that the exclusive use of fast thinking increases the risk of being manipulated and essentially excluded from political involvement. On the contrary, the integration of fast and slow thinking increases the probability of using online political communication in an active, conscious and critical way.