Infotainment and citizens' political perceptions: Who's afraid of Polnia

Our research focuses on a satirical political television programme called Polnia¹ broadcast on a public Catalan channel. Infotainment is a controversial subject in academic circles. After an academic review of the civic effects of the television satire on the general public, we provide data on infotainment in terms of its effects on the general public's understandings of Catalan and Spanish politics and politicians. Our study reflects viewers' understandings of Polnia and adds to the data on trends in European television. Two surveys and two focus groups were organized, involving a total of 1985 people with different social, political and viewing profiles. The results confirm the influence of infotainment in generating changes in peoples' perceptions of politics. There is a general agreement among the participants that the programme affects neither the voting turnout nor voting patterns. The results suggest that Polnia could reinforce the previous political malaise.