Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

In the post-truth era, where emotions are much more influential in shaping public opinion than are objective facts, it is expected that citizen’s participation, whether offline or online, in programs dealing with issues of democratic consequences, are overflowing with this emotional component. While radio programs that appeal for popular culture, such as phone-ins or entertainment magazines, might not often delve into social problems with serious complexity, they offer structures that let audiences creatively start thinking of private and public concerns, a practice by which engagement can go beyond the popular to influence political perceptions and values (Dahlgren, 2009). Given that we live in an era consisting of lies that can go viral mainly through a media alliance, particularly with social media, this paper ought to detect the presence of feeling-driven and thought-driven comments in the mediatized messages of ordinary people. This paper contributes with a method that studies the form and content of conductors and participants, correlating the used emotion and topic. In this work, besides the content, the voice is a key factor. Thus, it will look at which type of emotions predominate depending on who talks (presenters or journalists that guide the program, citizens participating); and the topic those presenters, journalists, and participants are talking about. This research is an approach to the construction of an innovative methodology that correlates emotional-based and content-based variables. The study uses a semi-qualitative methodology based on content analysis of citizen’s contributions, as well as live managing of them– and in-depth interviews with main editors. The selected case studies are non-news programs that deal with political, social and entertaining issues that call for live online as well as offline participations through different channels, also known as TV talk shows or phone-in radio programs.