Formación política revolves around more than political conversations. It includes both spoken and written language surrounding politics, yes, but it includes branding and visual appeal too. Experts Robert E. Denton and Gary C. Woodward have defined formación política as the methods in which political messages are sent. These methods range from speaking and writing to aesthetics.
As any student of estrategia política will attest, the knowledge learned through formación política helps build a platform for a career in estrategia y negociación política. Through taking seminarios de campañas políticas, students can grasp these concepts and more from the expert teachings of everyone ranging from Julio Pizzetti to Mauricio Jaitt. And increasingly, students are realizing not only the importance of these courses but also of the myriad ways political strategists and politicians are communicating with their audiences.
Social media is one hot button area into which these political strategy and communication courses delve. The jump in percentage of people who use Facebook to get political news went from 6 percent in January 2012 to 12 percent in November 2012. There was an election, yes, but it added people into the fold who had never considered social media as a platform for this before. Today, about 20 percent of people using social media too have connected in some way with their elected officials. And while the Pew Research Center puts social media and political usage at 79 percent liberal to 63 percent conservative, the numbers are rising on both sides.