You average and journalism play a critical role in democratic functioning and in intermediation between the political sphere and the public, promoting knowledge about the processes, institutions and actors of the political system. In a way, the average they function as the main managers of the visibility and symbolic capital of political actors (Prior, 2021, p. 42).

The political sphere operates with media values and, when facts or events in the political sphere do not spontaneously become news, the political field takes charge of producing symbolic events that are designed purposely to be reported by the public. average (Prior, 2021, p. 43).

This media construction is further strengthened with the average personalized, ubiquitous and invasive. Digital social networks have become part of the praxis policy, both from politicians and citizens, creating spaces of visibility and sociability, and expanding – in close coordination with average conventional – the reach of messages and promoting debate online (Figueiras, 2019, p. 42). Today, political communication experiences phenomena such as:

1. The misinformation that arises from the “transformation of the production of rumors, lies and half-truths into an industry that populates [digital] social networks” (Mesquita, 2022, p. 16);
2. Digital social networks compete with television as information access channels, creating a tendency for weaponization that transformed the internet into a battlefield, fostering a permanent disposition for conflict (Baptista, 2021);
3. The instantaneity in which politics lives, with the space and time of mediation between events, representations and actions practically suppressed (Esteves, 2019, p. 57);
4. THE politicaltainment associated with the politician's entry into the celebrity-industrial complex, turning the art of politics into an art of performance, the art of being a celebrity (Cardoso, 2023) which can lead to an approach focused mainly on politicians from the point of view of their personal characteristics without political relevance, their lifestyle, etc. (Pereira, 2019);
5. Political populism developed through an emotional discourse in the face of an apathetic, disbelieving and disinterested population in public affairs that easily allows itself to be carried away by promises of an individualistic and privativist nature (Rebelo, 2021, p. 200);
6. The discontent, contempt and distrust on the part of some groups of citizens towards their governments or their parliamentarians, believing that they do not represent the popular will (Castells, 2013).
7. The lack of journalistic coverage that promotes and improves citizens' political literacy and political intervention through coverage that encourages active audience participation in the political system and contributes to civic awareness (Reis & Magos, 2019, p. 24) . Young Portuguese people, for example, have been less politically participative compared to other European countries when it comes to voting and “unconventional” forms of participation such as boycotting products, signing petitions or demonstrating (Magalhães, 2022);

In addition to characterizing this media construction, journalistic information must be an element of the concept of (passive) citizenship, which is of crucial importance for full citizen participation in the democratic process. Journalism is, therefore, a kind of precondition for public debate, a resource for citizenship and democracy (Lopes, 2017, p. 98).