Politainment

Politainment ( combination of the words politics and entertainment ) describes the connection between politics , journalism and entertainment culture .

Politainment according to Andreas Dörner

The media scientist Andreas Dörner from the University of Marburg notes two levels:

Entertaining politics: Political actors use the instruments and stylistic devices of entertainment culture in order to achieve their goals.
Political entertainment: The entertainment industry specifically uses political figures, topics and events to make their products interesting and attractive.

The scientific discussion about this complex has its starting point in the studies of Paul Lazarsfeld in 1940 ( The People's Choice. How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. New York / London 1944 ), in which he stated, that interpersonal communication has a much stronger influence on future voting behavior than previously assumed.

The so-called “swimming pool affair” of the former Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping can be seen as a typical, nonetheless failed example of the level of entertainment politics . The SPD politician was photographed by the colorful with his partner Countess Pilati in the swimming pool on Mallorca.

The “ Lindenstrasse ” can be cited as an example of political entertainment . References to current politics are repeatedly made in the series or socially controversial topics such as homosexuality or AIDS are taken up.

The addition of entertainment elements in political speech or political reporting, in political action as a whole, is often rated as questionable, since concrete content and statements could all too easily give way to the appealing presentation. This culturally critical warning is therefore uttered by some in the same way as for the phenomena infotainment and edutainment . Politainment understands a more positive explanation as a consequence of widespread disenchantment with politics, which serves to bring politics closer to the average citizen. In principle, information and entertainment are not mutually exclusive. However, there are signs that Politainment tends to lead to a flattening of general political awareness, as the boundaries to popular journalism of the tabloids are becoming increasingly blurred.

Politainment according to Rudi Renger

Relationship between Politainment and different journalisms

The connection between political reporting and entertainment was recognized relatively early by tabloid journalism . For example, the Austrian “Kronen Zeitung” before 1918 only wrote about Viennese community politics “when it was 'not too boring' or there was a 'rush' [= a joke]” (Renger 2000: 120 ).

For the communication scientist Rudi Renger of the University of Salzburg , politics is the new reality of the political. Because “You can laugh about anything, but that's the problem” (Heldt 1990: 11) and that also applies to the relationship between politics and entertainment. Politainment does reduce the complex political issues and thus illustrate the world of politics for the layman as well, but political positions and program content, but also continuously occurring lines of conflict and confrontations, are made clear by the simplified representation in the mode of feel good (cf. Dörner 2001: 62ff.) Broken down to a (narrative) level of anecdotal collections and the privatization and personalization of the political. Entertaining political reporting is ultimately the journalistic end product of the symbiosis between media makers and political actors, which is intended to help open up audience groups on the corporate side and voter groups on the politician side. The banner of the increase in quotas hovers over both of them. (see Renger / Wiesner 2007)

In modern society, political reporting has the task of creating and providing political topics for public communication. In the course of forming their own opinion, which influences politics in the form of votes, people are more dependent than ever on the mass media . But the relationship between media and politics is tense. Alexander Van der Bellen (Der Standard on April 25, 2006), federal spokesman for the Greens in Austria, sees a constant interplay of closeness and distance: “We need both of us. They are presented to us as puppies and we are them, because without the media you don't exist politically. ”Politics is therefore increasingly staging itself in order to influence media content. (cf. Wiesner / Allmer 2006: 24)

Different “journalisms” (as well as the phenomenon politainment) can be classified in a model (see figure: Relationship between politainment and different journalisms), the different “leaf styles” (style guide) of daily newspapers can in turn be determined by the relatively constant use of Recognize entertaining elements (visual language, metaphor , allegory , metonymy , periphrase , kenning , etc.) as well as the separation between news and opinion in political reporting (see Renger / Wiesner 2007)

This new reality of the political can be constructed in various ways as entertaining political reporting: through certain forms of narration, through the selection and preparation of political topics, through the personalization of processes, through familialization or privatization (in the form of emotional docking points for individual Experiences for the audience), through strong (evaluating) evaluations in "objective" journalistic forms of representation (such as news and reports) and through a large number of metaphorical or emotionalising words. (see Wiesner / Allmer 2006: 25)

Politainment according to Thomas Meyer

After the political scientist Thomas Meyer from the Technical University of Dortmund , who like Rudi Renger also refers to Andreas Dörner, Politainment describes the communication structure shaped by both political actors and media observers, in which the public representation of politics and its actual implementation separated from each other. Instead of placing the actual political processes at the center of the information, politics is presented on a “staging surface” (Thomas Meyer). According to Thomas Meyer, the conditions of politainment include “symbolic pseudo-politics”, “media-friendly theatricalization”, “event politics” and “image politics”. (see Meyer 2006: 84f.)

Meyer describes the case as a classic case of politainment and “symbolic pseudo-politics”, “when Ronald Reagan engaged in conversation with teachers and students in front of the assembled TV cameras on the school desk of a classroom and showed a passionate interest in education in front of the audience , while his government had just cut the education budget. ”Such a politainment could be“ a placebo policy for the purpose of pretending. ”According to Meyer, politainment belongs to the“ tools of the media Machiavellian ”(cf. Meyer 2006, 84f.)

Further development of protestainment

Based on Andreas Dörner's concept of politainment, the sociologists of the Technical University of Dortmund Gregor J. Betz, Ronald Hitzler and Friederike Windhofer deal with happy protest (see Betz 2016), i.e. with the enrichment of protest events with entertainment elements, and beat it Term protestainment (see Betz et al. 2017). From a historical perspective, in qualitative case studies using the examples of the energy transition protest and the trade union first May, they demonstrate a change in protest mobilization to the effect that potential participants are increasingly promised non-political, meaningless entertainment elements. This coincides with findings from interviews with participants at current protest events, according to which participants expect predominantly political content and pleasure in equal measure.

literature

Gregor J. Betz (2016): Hilarious Protest. Explorations of hybridized forms of collective disobedience. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. On-line
Gregor J. Betz / Ronald Hitzler / Friederike Windhofer (2017): Protestainment. Change in the meaning of entertainment elements in protest mobilization using the examples of the energy transition protest and May 1st. In: Research Journal Social Movements, 30 (4). Pp. 109-115. On-line
Bernd Blöbaum / Rudi Renger / Armin Scholl (2007): Journalism and entertainment. Theoretical approaches and empirical findings. Vs publisher. ISBN 3531152912
Uli Bernhard (2008): How entertaining is politics? An analysis of policy coverage in regional daily newspapers. Saarbrücken: VDM. ISBN 3836461854
Andreas Dörner (2001): Politainment. Politics in the media adventure society. Frankfurt: Fischer. ISBN 3518122037
Uwe Heldt (1990): Lust for Laughter. A reader. Munich-Zurich: Piper. ISBN 349211170X
Moritz Klöppel (2008): Infotainment. Between educational requirements and audience expectations. Tectum science publisher. ISBN 978-3-8288-9731-1
Thomas Meyer (2006): Populism and Media. In: Frank Decker (Ed.): Populism in Europe. VS-Verlag. License issue for the Federal Agency for Civic Education Bonn. ISBN 3-89331-680-9 .
Rudi Renger (2000): Popular Journalism. News between fact and fiction. Innsbruck u. a .: Studien Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3706515288
Rudi Renger / Christian Wiesner (2002): Politics in the tabloid media. In. Fabris, Hans Heinz / Renger, Rudi / Rest, Franz (eds.). Report on the state of journalism in Austria. A quality monitoring - survey year 2001. University of Salzburg, Department of Communication Studies, 59-63.
Rudi Renger (2002): Political Drafts in the Boulevard. On the ideology of tabloid formats. In: Schicha, Christian / Brosda, Carsten (Hrsg.): Political mediation in entertainment formats. Media stagings between popularity and populism. Münster-Hamburg-London: Lit Verlag, 223-232.
Rudi Renger / Christian Wiesner (2007): Politics to laugh about: 'Feel Good' factors in political reporting in Austrian daily newspapers. In: Scholl, Armin / Renger, Rudi / Blöbaum, Bernd (ed.): Journalism and entertainment. Theoretical approaches and empirical findings. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 255 - 276.
Christian Wiesner / Robert Allmer (2006): I see something that you don't see? Politainment from the perspective of the recipient. In: Journalism in Austria: Self-published by the Journalism Department, Communication Science Department, University of Salzburg, 24-31.
Wiesner Christian (2007): I have never found a more sociable partner than entertainment: a reconstruction of attempts to determine entertainment. In: Scholl, Armin / Renger, Rudi / Blöbaum, Bernd (ed.): Journalism and entertainment. Theoretical approaches and empirical findings. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 53 - 66.

Web links

Wiktionary: Politainment - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations