Campanhas eleitorais televisivas e agenda temática nas disputas presidenciais de 1994 a 2014: PT e PSDB

Abstract

Electoral campaigns occupy a central position in political practices and party strategies. Over the years, with the modernization and professionalization of campaigns, political parties have adapted to the new reality, hired marketing professionals, and adjusted their strategies and thematic agendas to the communicational logic. In Brazil, this process is observed mainly in the campaigns broadcasted in the Horário Gratuito de Propaganda Eleitoral (Free Time for Electoral Propaganda). Television was for many years the main source of political information, and thus HGPE is a privileged space for the presentation and observation of themes. For 20 years the Brazilian campaigns were polarized between PT and PSDB, together these parties obtained the largest part of the valid votes and the greatest access to block advertising time. Based on these affirmations, this paper seeks to answer the following questions: Which themes have predominated in the TV presidential campaigns of PT and PSDB over time? Being the hypotheses: 1) There is a decline in the thematic segments presented in HGPE of the presidential disputes between PT and PSDB between 1994 and 2014. 2) Due to the professionalization of the campaigns, the parties present a thematic convergence over the years 3) Even though the parties present theme convergence over the years, the content of the themes presented is divergent. The results show that the parties do present a convergence in the thematic agendas, but that this convergence is not expressed in the strategies used to present them. We conclude that polarization is also expressed in the thematic agendas.