40 | nº 30, pp. 37-53 | doxa.comunicación
January-June of 2020
New job roles of the political leaders in infotainment television programmes
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
Table 1. Attributes (A) of the political figure according to the political and television logics
Television logic
Political logic
A1
Personalization
Personalization
A2
Media communication competence
Media communication competence
A3
Popularity
Popularity
A4
Good image (telegeny, dressing style)
Good image (telegeny, dressing style)
A5
Good diction
Good diction
A6
Gestural expressiveness
Gestural expressiveness
A7
Availability
Availability
A8
Gender (if parity is sought)
Gender (if parity is sought)
A9
Charisma
Charisma
A10
Tune with the public
Tune with the public
A11
Speech flexibility. Ability to adapt to different formats and styles
Speech flexibility. Ability to adapt to different formats and styles
A12
Simplicity of the message
Simplicity of the message
A13
Attention to the fact rather than to the process
Attention to the fact rather than to the process
A14
Polemist attitude (spur)
Rhetorical capacity for confrontation
A15
Negative criticism of the opponent
Negative criticism of the opponent
A16
Polarization of ideas
Ideological alignment
Ambiguity
A17
Reduction of production costs
Compensation below usual or payment in kind
A18
Ultimate interest: generate audience to get better advertising contracts
Ultimate interest: gain popularity and voters
Source: own elaboration
Personalization (A1) is a requirement in television as it needs to provide with a voice and an image in order to broad-cast ideas. Due to this requirement, politics is experiencing a parallel process with an increasing limelight of the leaders against doctrines, notions or collective organizations (Rebolledo, 2017), and as a result, there is an increasing concern of the candidate to create and maintain a profile facing his voters.
An important number of these attributes that are tracked in the mediatic politician are related with this personalization, among them, having a good image (telegeny) (A4), a clear and pleasant voice (A5), a pantomimic gestural expressiveness (A6), charisma understood as the talent to attract the audience through the speech and image (A9), and of course, the popularity which guarantees being recognized by the audience (A3). Another imperious feature of the political leader is to have media communication competence, that is, to understand how the media works and the codes that rule in it, in order to use them for their own profit (A2). There are also another kind of requirements that arise from the productive
