Politics and comedy. Political image building in hybrid satire and comedy shows of German television.

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For politicians, image building is important to gain and retain political power. Thus, for several years scientific studies observe the presentation of political actors in their professional and personal role in media. However, in recent times, a trend - having largely been ignored in previous research - is emerging: German politicians increasingly appear in comedy and satire shows like "Pelzig hält sich" or "heute show". This fact is surprising because satire is traditionally often used to criticize politics. It seems that politicians use those shows in order to build a positive image by performing a sense of humour. At the same time, occurrence in satirical television can be highly unpredictable and risky for the politicians. They interact with experienced and sometimes critical media actors, who follow their own interests. So comedy is characterized by inherent polysemy and extended taboos. Therefore, if politicians act awkward, they may appear silly, ridiculous and irresponsible. The research project analyses the use of humour by political and media actors in front of the camera, as well as the reception of such presentations by the audience. Moreover, it is to investigate how these performances influence the perception of politics and politicians by the audience. In the recent reception research, which is primarily American, there is disagreement in terms of possible impacts by comical political communication. The presentation of politicians in comedy will be compared with the presentation of politicians in classical satirical television shows. The following questions will be pursued:1. Which possibilities of comical communication are used by political and media actors?2. How does the audience perceive those appearances and which images of politics are generated?3. Which opportunities and risks for the political image building can be identified? How do the actors assess this aspect? The explorative empirical study follows a broader concept of interpretive "videography". In order to respond to the complexity of the object, the analysis considers the three dimensions of production, text and reception. The project aims to gain an insight into a new development of "politainment" in Germany. Up to now this has almost been completely neglected by scientific community.