Spanish Television Channels and the 13-J Election Debate: Programing Strategies and Social Audience

Abstract

The television debate represents a decisive factor in political communication campaigns, and even more so if we consider that the television channels arbitrate social audience strategies that cause the message to be transmedia. The candidate, a television political leader, is able to impact on an audience that is larger than the one exposed to the propagandistic tools, and they can obtain an advantageous position in the distribution of votes. The political debate, understood as informative and live content, is potentially attractive to the traditional and social audiences and hence, the television channels structure programming strategies and social media to compete for the largest number of viewers. This research analyzes the transmedia proposal of La 1 of TVE, Antena 3, Telecinco and La Sexta before the pre-electoral debate of June 13th, 2016. All television channels benefit from the social impact of debate to a greater or lesser extent, achieving an accumulate audience of 47% and 1.8 million of tweets. Conversations were channeled through hashtags, and there was participation from official broadcasters, including political leaders, and screen integration.

Keywords

• Televisión
• Redes Sociales
• Audiencia Social
• Debate electoral
• Comunicación política
• Transmedia