Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the political «infotainment» prosumer on Internet. In the second half of the XX century, telecracy was the predominant one-way communication model that not only popularized politics but also transformed politics into entertainment or «politainment». The XXI century began with the conviction that the Internet would lead to a bidirectional communication model in which true dialogue between political power and citizens would emerge. This research explores a new field of study: Web 2.0 «politainment» and prosumers’ attitudes and actions within this new communication sphere. The objective of the study is to identify the kind of political content Internet users consume and produce. To achieve this, we made a case study of the political information produced and consumed on YouTube, and in particular of a speech given by Ana Botella, the Mayor of Madrid, before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in September 2013. The 40 most-watched videos on YouTube during the week of the Mayor’s appearance as well as those viewed in the month that followed have been analyzed, in addition to the 3,000 comments on these videos. The conclusion shows that the prosumption of «politainment» on Internet is characterized by massive consumption of information but passive reaction with regard to production and participation.

Abstract

This paper explores the creation and content of apps about Donald Trump (n=412) published in Google Play between June 2015 and January 2018. The relevance of the study stems from both its objectives and its methodology. On the one hand, the aim was to characterise the profile, motivations and purposes of the developers of Donald Trump apps; and on the other, to identify the main features of the discourses in the most downloaded apps. The study relied on two resources: a qualitative questionnaire of open questions for developers (n=376), and a quantitative analysis of the content of apps that exceeded 5,000 downloads (n=117). The questionnaire identified the influence of political current affairs in the developers’ ideological and economic motivations, while the content analysis revealed the trends found over time, as well as the themes, discourses and ideological positioning of the most popular apps about Donald Trump. The findings provide an empirical basis for how the content of these apps was articulated with the news; the influence of content that went viral; hegemonic discourses; and the role played by developers of new expressive, commercial, informative and persuasive proposals in the intersection between mobile apps and political campaigns.

Abstract

There was a turn in the use of political marketing strategies in Spain with the election campaign of December 20th, 2015. Infotainment television programs were unprecedented in their protagonism, which was part of the candidates’ agendas as they reached out directly to the electorate with a human image. A quantitative content analysis was carried out to further understand the most used topics in these formats, as well as the type of public and private information that is produced about them. To this end, the rhetoric was analyzed from the three most followed Spanish infotainment programs: En la tuya o en la mía (TVE), El hormiguero 3.0 (Antena 3), ¡Qué tiempo tan feliz! (Telecinco); parties with the highest electoral expectations were included. The results indicate a clear prevalence of personal issues as opposed to the more political and programmatic ones, which take second place.

Abstract

This research analyzes the use of Twitter by the four main Spanish political parties in the electoral campaign of December 2015. It delves into the tendencies of the tweets, published from the official accounts of the parties and the candidates, and those hashtags or tags that became national trending topics. It discovers that they emphasize the stylistic role of the candidate and use quinine humor, with the aim of humanizing the candidate and bringing him closer to the audience. According to the conclusions, getting the most virality does not ensure electoral victory, but the trends of the studied period yield interesting recommendations for political communication.

Abstract

The communication strategy developed on Twitter by the communication team La Cueva, of the political party Izquierda Unida, during the general elections of 2015 and 2016, achieved notoriety because of the language used and the followers and sympathizer’s participation. This article analyzes the tweets generated by the accounts of the party and the candidate Alberto Garzón during the two electoral campaigns, by combining frequency analysis, as a quantitative technique, and digital ethnography, as a qualitative technique. A confluence of factors, such as the visualization of the candidate’s private life and the admiration professed by the “garzoners” (Garzón’s supporters), both promoted by La Cueva, allows us to consider Alberto Garzón as an example of politician celebrity.

Abstract

This research addresses the study of YouTube in the electoral campaign of the General Election on June 26th, 2016 (26J) in Spain. Through a methodology of descriptive analysis of contrasted content, a sample of 80 videos of the political leaders were examined: Mariano Rajoy, Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera. The objectives of the research were to identify if there was a difference in media consumption between the electoral campaign period and the permanent campaign. Therefore, it could be established whether the response of the prosumers was unequal in terms of participation and to investigate in categories such as thematic of videos and authorship. The results reveal that the videos which contain politainment in the permanent campaign category are the most consumed, while the most viewed videos in the electoral campaign are on informative questions. The prosumers are passive: they neither produce nor participate actively.

Abstract

YouTube is a social network where videos of all topics are created and consumed. In this article we propose a classification of the most watched political information content on YouTube Spain. We will analyze the power and characteristics of these contents in a sample of 1,443 videos that were trending topic for 143 days. We will use a methodology based on content analysis to observe the frequency, user interaction, creative activity of authors, presence of infotainment features and journalistic quality on political videos. The results showed a lower frequency of visualization, interaction and prosumer activity in the videos of political information. We also found that most of the videos lack of plurality and no sources were consulted in them. This scene is a challenge for journalists, whose mission of verification and sort out of information acquires, in this context, a great importance.

Abstract

In the current media ecosystem, one of the main pillars of political party communication campaigns is focused on the appearance of political leaders on television. The presence and exposure of political candidates in this medium, across different informative formats, from entertainment to infotainment, draws the attention of a considerable section of citizens beyond the electoral campaign. The electoral debates are one of the most hegemonic television formats relating to politics, that brings together a large number of spectators. The interest of the Spanish audience in this type of format, without a historical tradition in Spain, has been remarkable to watch during the last twenty-six years of broadcasting. The evolution of the audience for these programs confirms a high level of interest by Spanish spectators and has reached historically high ratings for the networks broadcasting them, which is one of the quantitative indicators unanimously accepted as a standard in the study on audiences. However, the incorporation of new screens and channels into the electoral debates has widened the mainstream viewing scenario. The current multiscreen television experience and audience participation across platforms, such as social networks, represent a challenge for the communication strategies of political parties and television networks, as well as for measurement of this new audience, which is significantly more active, while also generating more content.

Abstract

This study proposes alternative measures of infotainment’s effects on audience perception and reception of news on social media, focusing on infotainment coverage of North Korea. We determine the elements of framing strategies and narrative styles in facilitating public attention, positive and negative responses, and engagement in news content. We used the YouTube application programming interface to collect data from VideoMug, Korea’s most popular YouTube channel, run by the Seoul Broadcasting System. We examined 23,774 replies commenting on North Korea-related video clips from July 1, 2018, to May 17, 2019. The findings show that entertainment and human interest frames were effective in drawing public attention to news coverage about North Korea. Using humor and colloquial language facilitated public attention (both positive and negative) and public engagement. Over half (59.55%) of the comments generated positive emotions; less than one-third generated negative emotions (31.41%); and a few generated neutral ones (9.03%). The infotainment approach helped make South Koreans’ attitudes toward North Korea and inter-Korean relations more positive. A small number of users who served as top authorities were extremely partisan and conducted intense debates about infotainment practices. This study’s hybrid analytical framework using computerized text mining techniques offers both theoretical and methodological insights into the function of infotainment in the context of social media.

Abstract

The factors that have contributed to the position of RAC 1, a radio station belonging to the Godó Group, as the audience leader in Catalonia, despite being the most recent channel available, are defined and explained. This detailed analysis of audience data for Catalan broadcasting is a line of research carried out by the Observatori de la Ràdio a Catalunya. The last 10 years have seen an increase in the number of people who listen to radio only in Catalan, regardless of the language they typically use for communication. This phenomenon is unprecedented and requires an analysis beyond casual interpretations. According to EGM data, RAC 1 accounts for more than 40% of the daily share of talk radio (2019), placing it as the first preference for listeners in Catalonia. In addition, this radio station has become the fifth most important conventional radio station (837,000 listeners) in Spain, with many more listeners than stations that have national coverage. RAC 1 celebrated its 20th birthday on 1 May 2020. Its contents focuses on infotainment and has a successful image among the media. Addressing and describing the keys to the success of a radio station represents a new approach in the scholarly literature. This case study of RAC 1, which has been an audience leader for a decade, thus represents a pioneering approach. The methodology applied to determine the causes of this phenomenon includes an analysis of the positioning of the channel’s overall offering, its programming strategies, and its program content, based on reports from the Observatori de la Ràdio a Catalunya, the Institut de la Comunicació (InCOM) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Generalitat de Catalunya. The analysis is completed by in-depth interviews with the main stakeholders of the radio station.