On Thursday, May 18, teachers and students of our Institute took part in the research seminar "Politainment: when political reporting meets entertainment" organized by the Department of Modern English Teaching Practices, the Department of English Philology and Methods of Teaching English, the Department of Slavic Philology, Foreign Literature and Methods of Teaching.
The seminar was delivered by Patricia Zamora Martinez, a Spanish journalist and a researcher at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Patricia also participates in the project “Politainment in the Face of Media Fragmentation: Disintermediation, Engagement and Polarization”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Her main line of research is the analysis of infotainment in television programming.
In her presentation Patricia spoke about politainment – the term coined to denote the current trend of treating political information in a superficial, spectacular, parodic or humorous way. She explained how emergence of private television at the end of the 20th century and the switch to digital television led to hybridisation of audiovisual genres and politainment. Patricia also analyzed the implications this trend has had both for politicians and consumers of the content.
Although the presenter focused on the instances of politainment native to Spain, the audience were quick to recognize a similar trend in Ukraine as well, and were interested in collaborative research aimed at investigating this international phenomenon.