The people during the presidential elections on french TV: Announcement of the election results and audience representations

Abstract

To understand how societies represent the people and act on the people to express the general will, Stéphanie Kunert, Frédéric Lambert, and Beatriz Sanchez investigate one of the most important moments in the democratic process: the results of the presidential elections in France. They are announced on television and enabled them to observe how a people as a being was constructed and staged using ordinary people, the television viewers who, for the most part, regularly watch this key moment in the political future of the country. By referring to the 2012 presidential elections, and also to the representation of the people during television broadcasts for the 2007 election result on two French TV channels that have similar political inclinations, but different enunciation mechanisms (TF1 and BFM TV), the authors aim to determine how the people as a concept is depicted in the media. The public debate taking place in public arenas is there to give the people provisional form. The people is commanded into being, it is the performative result of political discourse and mediated speech.