Reality television and politics come together. Topics and discursive strategies of politicians on the programmes "Planeta Calleja" and "En la tuya o en la mía"

Abstract

Political infotainment is increasingly present on Spanish television. The rupture of bipartisanism caused by the emergence of new political parties and new leadership has favoured the expansion and diversification of the number of politainment programmes. This article analyses interviews with Pedro Sánchez, Albert Rivera, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and Mariano Rajoy on Planeta Calleja and En la tuya o en la mía, two of the programmes that are included in a new genre of political infotainment in Spain, reality television. The objective of this study is to describe the topics covered in the interviews as well as the discursive strategies used. There are three main conclusions in this research: first is the fact that despite being two programmes of the same genre, the topics differ; second, there are coincidences in the predominance of proposals in the face of attacks and defensive messages; thirdly, it has been confirmed that politicians who are performing government functions are less aggressive than their opponents.