Pragmatic aspects of televised texts: A single case study of the intervention of a televised documentary program in party politics

A documentary program broadcast on Dutch television on April 8, 1994, reported that a rather unknown financial company was suspected of tax fraud. Elco Brinkman, leader of the then largest Dutch political party the Christian Democrats (CDA), was a member of the board of this company. Although it was explicitly stated that Brinkman was not suspected of having played any role in the alleged fraud, the total program (in particular, the impact of the sounds and the picture-sequences on the verbal information) strongly suggested that Brinkman was involved in criminal activities. Many political commentators believe the broadcast to have influenced the elections which took place a few weeks after the broadcast. The Christian Democrats lost the elections. Brinkman did not become Prime Minister.In this paper, a detailed analysis is presented of the techniques that evoke the aforementioned suggestion. These techniques are: the mise en scene of pictures within a documentary context, the association of guilt by means of pictures whereas the verbal part is neutral, and the cutting of interview fragments into new verbal sequences. Media communication about politics is not purely verbal. Its ‘language’ contains plural codes, which interact to create new meanings or messages. Furthermore, media do not render politics as it is; rather they create and shape politics and thus are part and parcel of it.