Debates on the social function of televisual political satire. The perspective of the production crew of Polònia (TV3)

Abstract

Polònia is a political satire show broadcast on the Catalan public television network TV3. On the air since 2006, the show — which features popular Spanish and Catalan politicians impersonated by actors — has maintained remarkable ratings this whole time. With this background, this study aims to observe and examine how the creative team of Polònia frames both their work and the phenomenon of politainment through qualitative interviews. A subsequent theme analysis is used to both detect key debate points and the interviewees’ opinions on these subjects. Topics such as the role of television in explaining what politics is to citizens, the social function of politainment and the particularities of Polònia among other formats in this phenomenon or the existence of a bond between comedic content and the public service to be provided by TV3 have shown themselves to be the main debate points.

KEYWORDS: politainment, infotainment, Polònia, televisual satire, public service broadcasting, TV production.