Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Discussing mediatization of politics based on the portuguese case 123 tain control over how they (re)present the political world. The main implication of this conduct is the framing of political real- ity in specific privileged schemes, such as the “game” and “strat - egy” approaches. The framework of the «game» results from the inte- gration of opinion polls in the journalistic narrative. It refers to news that portrays politics as a dispute. It focuses on who is win- ning and who is losing elections, the battle for public opinion (opinion polls, vox pops ), and the struggle between personalities in politics in general. In turn, the “strategy” framework is a con- sequence of the interpretive drift of journalism. This approach produces news focused on interpretations of political actors or motivations for particular actions and positions. It is also inter- ested in the strategies and tactics used to achieve determined goals and the veiled choices about leadership, including person- al character traits. The predominance of the “game” and the “strategy” has also prevented politicians from being subjects with a voice in the news pieces. Another example of journalists’ interventionism is given to us by the length of the politicians’ statements included in the news pieces. The sound bites of politicians have shrunk dramatically and in proportion to the voice of journalists. It is the media that decide how long politicians are allowed to speak on direct speech in the news pieces. Another example of the growing media interventionism is the degree of journalistic visibility, that is, the visible presence of journalists in television plays (GRABE; BUCY, 2009). This vis- ibility reveals itself in the presence of journalists in front of the camera while opening and/or closing the pieces and interview - ing politicians. Interventionism also occurs when journalists, when closing the rights, reorganize the politicians’ discourse with what they consider to be the most relevant of what was said by a determined political protagonist. Another important element is the predominance of the journalist’s voice, in voice- over, over politicians’ images. In all these types of media interventionism, journalists are somehow silencing politicians and managing their visibility. This reveals the media’s discretionary power (BLUMLER; KAVA- NAGH, 1999) of molding politics – political agenda, political rep-