Personal attributes as a promise of political action: when satirical impersonators hold politicians accountable
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Despite being well recognized for its impact, the specific logic guiding the production of satirical impersonation of politicians remains insufficiently researched in the field of political communication. This article aims at unveiling the ideas those artists use to conceptualize their job and, on that basis, enriching the theoretical notions present in the field. This study stems from the observation of the production process of Polònia, a tv program based on the impersonation of politicians that is broadcast weekly in Catalonia, Spain, from 2006. Data consists of interviews with some impersonators and the analysis of how this show represented the political negotiations conducted to form a government in 2015. Central in this production process is the personal traits of each politician, out of which, impersonators make their own impressions to craft their imitations. Then, in the sketches, Polònia shows if politicians are consistent with the impression they bring about with their personal traits. Satirical impersonation holds politicians to their own form of accountability: If a politician inspires a given way of being with their personal performance, he or she must be consistent with that in the daily political struggle. The personal is a promise of political action which, if not fulfilled, sends the politician to irrelevance. This centrality of the personal is discussed in comparison with its conceptualization in political communication literature.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Journal of Communication of SEECI recognizes and promotes copyright rights, as well as the need to disseminate knowledge in an accessible and equitable manner. Our journal operates under a Creative Commons License CC BY-NC 4.0, which allows authors and users to:
- Share and Adapt: Copy, redistribute, and adapt the material published in the journal in any medium or format.
- Attribution: Properly acknowledge authorship and provide a link to the license, indicating if any changes have been made.
- Non-Commercial: Do not use the material for commercial purposes without the express permission of the authors and the journal.
- Authors retain copyright and may enter into non-exclusive agreements for self-archiving, deposit, or distribution of the publisher's version published in this journal, including institutional, national, or international repositories, and personal websites.
References
Alexander, J. C. (2004). Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance Between Ritual and Strategy. Sociological Theory, 22(4), 527-573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2
Alexander, J. C. (2010). The Performance of Politics: Obama’s Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power. En The Performance of Politics: Obama’s Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744466.001.0001
Altheide, D. L. (2004). Media logic and political communication. Political Communication, 21(3), 293-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600490481307
Altheide, D. L. (2016). Media Logic. En G. Mazzoleni (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication Vol. 2, 1-6. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc088
Altheide, D. L., & Snow, R. P. (1979). Media Logic. SAGE Publications.
Álvarez Fuentes, M. (2019). Metaphors for comic relief: Satirists’ self-reported contribution to democratic dialogue in difficult times. Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies, 11(2), 249-264. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00006_1
Bailey, R. (2018). When journalism and satire merge: The implications for impartiality, engagement and ‘post-truth’ politics – A UK perspective on the serious side of US TV comedy. European Journal of Communication, 33(2), 200-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323118760322
Bal, A. S., Pitt, L., Berthon, P., & DesAutels, P. (2009). Caricatures, cartoons, spoofs and satires: political brands as butts. Journal of Public Affairs, 9(4), 229-237. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.334
Balmas, M., Rahat, G., Sheafer, T., & Shenhav, S. R. (2014). Two routes to personalized politics. Party Politics, 20(1), 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068811436037
Baum, M. A. (2003). Soft news and political knowledge: Evidence of absence or absence of evidence? Political Communication, 20(2), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600390211181
Baumgartner, J. C. (2021). Is It Funny if No One is Watching? Public Response to Late-Night Political Satire. Comedy Studies, 12(1), 15-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2020.1850101
Baumgartner, J. C., & Lockerbie, B. (2018). Maybe it Is More Than a Joke: Satire, Mobilization, and Political Participation. Social Science Quarterly, 99(3), 1060-1074. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12501
Baym, G. (2005). The Daily Show: Discursive integration and the reinvention of political journalism. Political Communication, 22(3), 259-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600591006492
Baym, G. (2014). Stewart, O’Reilly, and The Rumble 2012: Alternative Political Debate in the Age of Hybridity. Popular Communication, 12(2), 75-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2014.893583
Baym, G., & Jones, J. P. (2012). News Parody in Global Perspective: Politics, Power, and Resistance. Popular Communication, 10(1-2), 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2012.638566
Bell, J. (2014). Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science (4.a ed.). Open University Press.
Bennett, S. E., Rhine, S. L., Flickinger, R. S., & Bennett, L. L. M. (1999). «Video malaise» revisited: Public trust in the media and government. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 4(4), 8-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X9900400402
Berezin, M. (2017). On the construction sites of history: Where did Donald Trump come from? American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 5(3), 322-337. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-017-0045-7
Blumler, J. G. (1992). Vulnerable Values at Stake. En J. G. Blumler (Ed.), Television and the Public Interest: Vulnerable Values in West European Broadcasting (pp. 22-42). Sage Publications in association with the Broadcasting Standards Council. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x9206500125
Boland, T. (2012). Critical comedy: Satire, absurdity and Ireland’s economic crash. Irish Political Studies, 27(3), 440-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2012.693915
Boukes, M. (2019). Agenda-Setting With Satire: How Political Satire Increased TTIP’s Saliency on the Public, Media, and Political Agenda. Political Communication, 36(3), 426-451. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2018.1498816
Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027
Brants, K. (1998). Who’s Afraid of Infotainment? European Journal of Communication, 13(3), 315-335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323198013003002
Brewer, P. R., Young, D. G., & Morreale, M. (2013). The impact of real news about «fake news»: Intertextual processes and political satire. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 25(3), 323-343. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edt015
Cappella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (1997). Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good. Oxford University Press.
Coleman, S. (2012). How Voters Feel. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139035354
Coleman, S. (2015). Elections as storytelling contests. Contemporary Theatre Review, 25(2), 166-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2015.1020681
Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya. (2017). Informe sobre l’audiovisual a Catalunya 2016. CAC.
Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya. (2018). Informe sobre l’audiovisual a Catalunya 2017. CAC. https://www.cac.cat/sites/default/files/2017-11/Informe_sector_2016_esmenat.pdf
Corner, J. (2000). Mediated persona and political culture: Dimensions of structure and process. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 3(3), 386-402. https://doi.org/10.1177/136754940000300306
De Vreese, C. H. (2005). The spiral of cynicism reconsidered. European Journal of Communication, 20(3), 283-301. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323105055259
De Vreese, C. H., & Semetko, H. A. (2002). Cynical and engaged: Strategic campaign coverage, public opinion, and mobilization in a referendum. Communication Research, 29(6), 615-641. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365002237829
Ferré-Pavia, C., & Gayà-Morlà, C. (2011). Infotainment and citizens’ political perceptions: Who’s afraid of ‘Polònia’? Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 3(1), 45-61. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs.3.1.45_1
Ferré-Pavia, C., Sintes, M., & Gayà, C. (2016). The perceived effects of televised political satire among viewers and the communication directors of political parties: A European case. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(4), 299-317. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549415592892
Finlayson, A. (2002). Elements of the Blairite Image of Leadership. Parliamentary Affairs, 55(3), 586-599. https://doi.org/10.1093/parlij/55.3.586
Flowers, A. A., & Young, C. L. (2010). Parodying Palin: How Tina Fey’s Visual and Verbal Impersonations Revived a Comedy Show and Impacted the 2008 Election. Journal of Visual Literacy, 29(1), 47-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/23796529.2010.11674673
Goffman, E. (1956). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre.
Higgins, M., & McKay, F. M. (2016). Gender and the development of a political persona: The case of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. British Politics, 11(3), 283-300. https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2015.44
Holbert, R. L., Hmielowski, J., Jain, P., Lather, J., & Morey, A. (2011). Adding Nuance to the Study of Political Humor Effects: Experimental Research on Juvenalian Satire Versus Horatian Satire. American Behavioral Scientist, 55(3), 187-211. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764210392156
Jones, J. P. (2010). Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement (2.a ed.). Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Jones, M. O. (2017). Satire, social media and revolutionary cultural production in the Bahrain uprising: From utopian fiction to political satire. Communication and the Public, 2(2), 136-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047317706372
Jorgensen, D. (1989). Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies. SAGE Publications.
Kulkarni, A. (2017). Internet Meme and Political Discourse: A Study on the Impact of Internet Meme as a Tool in Communicating Political Satire. Journal of Content, Community & Communication, 6(3), 13-17. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3501366
Langer, A. I. (2010). The politicization of private persona: Exceptional leaders or the new rule? The case of the United Kingdom and the Blair effect. International Journal of Press/Politics, 15(1), 60-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161209351003
Langer, A. I. (2011). The personalisation of politics in the UK : mediated leadership from Attlee to Cameron. Manchester University Press.
Marshall, P. D. (2016). The Era of Persona. Kadokawa Summer Program - Mediated Worlds: Sociality, Publicness and Celebrity. https://prezi.com/kekpberaqe-i/the-era-of-persona/
Mast, J. L. (2006). The cultural pragmatics of event-ness: the Clinton / Lewinsky affair. En J. C. Alexander, B. Giesen, & J. L. Mast (Eds.), Social Performance. Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual 115-145. Cambridge University Press.
Mast, J. L. (2012). Cultural Pragmatics and the Structure and Flow of Democratic Politics. En J. C. Alexander, R. N. Jacobs, & P. Smith (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology 639-670. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195377767.013.24
McAllister, I. (2007). The Personalization of Politics. En R. J. Dalton & H. Klingemann (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior 571-588. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780199270125.003.0030
Michaud Wild, N. (2015). Dumb vs. Fake: Representations of Bush and Palin on Saturday Night Live and Their Effects on the Journalistic Public Sphere. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(3), 494-508. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2015.1055001
Mughan, A. (2000). Media and the Presidentialization of Parliamentary Elections. En Media and the Presidentialization of Parliamentary Elections. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403920126
Patterson, T. E. (1994). Out of Order. En Out of Order. Vintage Books - Ramdon House. https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmz012
Patterson, T. E. (1998). Time and news: The media’s limitations as an instrument of democracy. International Political Science Review, 19(1), 55-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/019251298019001004
Rahat, G., & Sheafer, T. (2007). The personalization(s) of politics: Israel, 1949-2003. Political Communication, 24(1), 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600601128739
Rauer, V. (2006). Symbols in action: Willy Brandt’s kneefall at the Warsaw Memorial. En J. C. Alexander, B. Giesen, & J. L. Mast (Eds.), Social Performance Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual 257-282. Cambridge University Press.
Richardson, K., Parry, K., & Corner, J. (2013). Political culture and media genre: Beyond the news. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291271
Ryabinska, N. (2020). Politics as a Joke: The Case of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Comedy Show in Ukraine. Problems of Post-Communism, 67, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2020.1816836
Shao, L., & Liu, D. (2019). The Road to Cynicism: The Political Consequences of Online Satire Exposure in China. Political Studies, 67(2), 517-536. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321718791373
Swidler, A. (1986). Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies. American Sociological Review, 51(2), 273-286. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095521
Tsakona, V., & Chovanec, J. (2020). Revisiting intertextuality and humour: fresh perspectives on a classic topic. The European Journal of Humour Research, 8(3), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.7592/ejhr2020.8.3.tsakona
Tsakona, V., & Popa, D. E. (2011). Humour in politics and the politics of humour. En V. Tsakona & D. E. Popa (Eds.), Studies in Political Humour: In between political critique and public entertainment (Vol. 46, pp. 1-30). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.46.03tsa
Van Zoonen, L. (2006). The personal, the political and the popular. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(3), 287-301. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549406066074
Van Zoonen, L., & Holtz-Bacha, C. (2000). Personalisation in Dutch and German politics: The case of talk show. Javnost - The Public, 7(2), 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2000.11008743
Wattenberg, M. P. (1998). The decline of American political parties, 1952-1996. Oxford University Press. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674194359
Wiggins, B. E. (2019). The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture. En The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429492303-2
Wilke, J., & Reinemann, C. (2001). Do the candidates matter? Long-term trends of campaign coverage - A study of the german press since 1949. European Journal of Communication, 16(3), 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323101016003001
Zaller, J. (2001). Monica Lewinsky and the mainsprings of American politics. En W. L. Bennett & R. M. Entman (Eds.), Mediated politics. Communication in the future democracy (252-278). Cambridge University Press.