Ignacio Balcazar, a student majoring in communication in our branch campus in Cuenca, took part of the 1st International Congress on "Televised electoral debates and new forms of political communication" that was held in Spain, where he presented his research titled  "Facebook live in electoral debates for citizen participation: the case of City Hall in Cuenca, Ecuador". The project was guided by professor Angel Torres Toukoumidis. 

His research analyzes the political debate held in February 2019 between 11 candidates who were running for Mayor of Cuenca which was transmitted through Facebook Live for 2 hours 40 minutes. The study is mainly based on the 4641 comments made by the public during the transmission and the classification made according to the analysis. "The research demonstrated something very significant, both the speech made by the candidates and public's comments evolved towards advertising", said Ignacio. 

Andrea De Santis, director of the communication undergraduate program in Cuenca, spoke about how Ignacio is one of the first students who have chosen to conduct research and write a paper as one of the options students have to graduate. "Universidad Politecnica Salesiana is committed to educating professionals with competencies in the field of research and the communication undergraduate program, in accordance with the university's purpose, encourages its students to conduct research that can contribute to the development of society".