THE PUBLIC CHARACTER AND THE ARCHETYPE a narrative study of the political leaders in the European elections of 2009 in Spain

The electoral video, a main persuasive tool of televisual electoral communication, is increasingly configured in two parts: a narration which presents a possible world to the audience and a speech asking for the vote made by a prominent member of the transmitter political formation. The public figure is becoming increasingly important in that narrative part of the electoral videos. Therefore, the research reported here conducts an analysis of how public figures are narratively constructed inside the narrative parts of the electoral videos. The analysis has been structured in two studies. First, a quantitative study on the frequency of appearance of the public figure in this type of audiovisual persuasive messages, cataloguing and categorizing the different appearances found. Second, a qualitative study on the narrative characterization of the characters previously identified, for which we have used the archetypes described by Christopher Vogler as the main analytical tool. The research has taken, as its space-time framework, the elections to the European Parliament that took place in Spain on June 7, 2009. The work sample consists of the videos made by the national parties who took seats in that election; these are: Izquierda Unida (IU), Partido Popular (PP), Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE) and Union, Progreso y Democracia (UPyD).