Politainment in the transmedia construction of the image of politicians

Abstract

This article explores the application of the concept of transmedia narrative to the construction of the public image of political figures, in a media context characterised by the prevalence of infotainment and the dissolution of the boundaries of political content. To attain this objective, a casestudy on a specific leader is carried out; he is a regional leader recognised at a national level thanks to his discursive strategy: president of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, chosen for his role as a regular guest on T.V shows of all kinds, as well as for having become the third most followed Spanish politician on social networks. Through content analysis, we examine the character's own performance on different media (television, social networks and an autobiographical book) along with the reactions provoked among the cybernauts. The results show a multiplatform narrative adapted to the specific formal language of each of those media and formats, constantly maintaining the application of politainment features (personalisation, entertainment, emotiveness and trivialisation of the issues). Regarding the effects, there is a high level of involvement and a love-hate dichotomy among the public, as proved in social networks. Consequently, in the transmedia political narrative (TPN) the users co-create the resulting image of the politician who is finally perceived by the audience. In addition, the success of Revilla's communication strategy is verified via ensuring that the self-assigned values in his speech, such as leadership and closeness to the people, match those that the audience identify with his figure.

Selfies and Speeches of a President at War: Volodymyr Zelensky’s Strategy of Spectacularization on Instagram

“…How politics has mutated in order to adapt to television grammar is labeled as "politainment" and is reflected, for example, in the appearance of candidates in entertainment programs such as talk shows (Berrocal-Gonzalo et al, 2022) or in the transience and instantaneity typical of audiovisual language transferred to speeches. Politainment, the reverse of infotainment (Ferré-Pavia, 2013), is also present in the prominence given to entertainment, emotion, trivialization, and the personalization of messages (Durántez-Stolle & Martínez-Sanz, 2019). Entering the agenda and receiving the attention of the spotlights goes through prioritizing a light approach to the issues, focused on the leaders and their personal traits, on humanized stories, and spectacular anecdotes that break with the ordinary.…”

The language of secessionist activism: Discourse and dialogue on Twitter1

“…Thanks to these platforms, users can create and distribute content, collaborate, interact and dialogue as well. These new tools and formats broaden the extent of campaigns, participation and activism (Durántez-Stolle and Martínez-Sanz 2019;Fenoll and Cano-Orón 2017).…”

“…• Study of the image(Quevedo et al 2016;Selva and Caro 2017) distinguishes the type of visual element that shapes or accompanies the message (GIF, meme, photography, video, among other types) and locates the protagonist, in addition to possible actors or relevant secondary elements.Likewise, it focuses on analysing the kind of space represented via those images, and how it has been captured. • Effect of the message(Durántez-Stolle and Martínez-Sanz 2019) indicates if there is agreement between the text and the visual elements, and if there is aggressiveness within the message.…”

El interés de la audiencia española en la política televisada: de los debates electorales al "politainment"

“…Furthermore, in the last few years we have witnessed a clear spectacularization of politics, as many studies on politainment confirm (Durántez-Stolle & Martínez-Sanz, 2019;Berrocal, 2017). This relatively recent term, as indicated by Berrocal Gonzalo, Campos-Domínguez & Redondo García (2014), brings together two functions associated with the media, as are political information and entertainment.…”