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Article published In:
Re/constructing Politics Through Social & Online Media: Discourses, ideologies, and mediated political practices
Edited by Michał Krzyżanowski and Joshua A. Tucker
[Journal of Language and Politics 17:2] 2018
► pp. 222–240

Microphone pokes as prank or political action?

Challenges to politicians’ visibility in the age of web TV

ORCID logo | Örebro University
| University of Queensland

The production of political talk is changing in response to ongoing changes in the overall media ecology. The rise of web TV challenges the previously dominant mediated politics of traditional broadcasting. In this paper we examine the practices of the mediatization of politics in the web TV environment via a humorous encounter between a self-declared “prankster” posing as a web TV broadcaster, and several Swedish politicians. The discussion reflects on various data emanating from this encounter to reveal how Web TV challenges traditional broadcasting norms, and offers fresh challenges for politicians who are continuously adapting to new media logics for exposure.

Keywords: Communicative activity types, interaction, political interviews, prank, tabloids, Web TV
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mediated interviews as communicative activity types
  • 3.Methodological approach and data
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Example 1: Prioritizing Live: Expressen’s filming of STHLM Panda
    • 4.2Example 2: Re-framing the Web TV Interviews – The Panda YouTube video
    • 4.3Example 3: Discourses of Humour, Ridicule, and Rage among Users
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Funding
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 20 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17004.kro
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