The socio-discursive phenomenon of legitimisation in the coverage of the campaigns of Carlos Gaviria and Alvaro Uribe during the 2006 presidential elections

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios61.74 This article examines how the daily newspaper El Tiempo represented the campaigns of the candidates Alvaro Uribe and Carlos Gaviria in the 2006 Colombian presidential election. In particular, this study analyses strategies such as the socio-discursive phenomenon of legitimisation, proposed by Pardo (2007), which manifests itself in the newspaper’s representation of the candidates and their campaigns during the week before the election. By means of a comparative analysis of the linguistic processes of authorisation, evaluation and mitigation, and their correlation with three concepts in political science such as charismatic authority (Weber, 1983), Bonapartism (Moncayo, 2004) and legitimacy (Lipset, 1981), conclusions are reached regarding the stance adopted by the newspaper in terms of the two candidates. It is concluded that El Tiempo favoured Uribe’s campaign because of the charismatic representation of his political figure and the legitimisation of his political project. In contrast, the newspaper made the figure of Carlos Gaviria invisible and represented his project as contrary to the interests of the majority of the country.