New job roles of the political leaders in infotainment television programmes

Abstract

Traditionally, the role of the politician in mass media is to be the source of information about political news. The beginning of political infotainment in television (politainment) during the 90´s opened a broader range of roles for political leaders as they began to appear in new formats not always informative, talking about their lives, acting as presenters or even as celebrities. The current research studies those new profiles for policitians in TV. The paper suggests the conceptualization which is completed by an empirical study about the roles of the politicians that appear in the TV program Las Mañanas de Cuatro as a significant program of TV infotainment (Sánchez-García y Campos Zabala, 2017). Among the conclusions, it is relevant to note the appearance of the main characters in this format and the roles they assume such as political chroniclers, political debaters or political celebrities.