Polintertainment: The use of humour in political communication

Abstract

The article presents the concepts of polintertainment inspired on a empirical study of "Vota Brasil" campaign promoted by the Superior Electoral Court, in Brazil, during the 2008 electoral process. Therefore, the main authors dealing on political communication are Rogers (2004), Carpini (2004), Gomes (2004) and Matos (2007), on the laughter Freud (1969), Berger (1983) and Camilo (2008), and on television Eco (1994), Ferres (1996) and Barreto (2004). The methodology adopted uses bibliographic survey, empirical study with analysis of propaganda broadcast on television and the interpretative reading of the campaign carried out by a focus group composed of voters with no party affiliation. It is emphasized that in Brazil, during the study period, there were municipal elections, in which 15,297 candidates have applied for mayors and 348,793 for city councils. In 5564 municipalities 128,806,592 citizens were able to vote. In Brazil, voting is mandatory and there is much misinformation about the functions of the public office, vote’s purchase and other ways of corruption. To encourage the conscious vote, the Superior Electoral Court broadcasted propaganda on national open radio and television network. Among the strategies adopted to draw the public’s attention, is the humor. The choice for the analysis of the campaigns is justified by the following reasons: social impact, originality and content of the messages. The educational films seized analogies and unusual situations. This paper is thus organized: firstly, reflects on political communication, television, creative strategies analysis and then the context and understanding by a focus group. So, we can propose the concept polintertainment because it is one of the strategies to make the public pay attention to the message.