"There are participants in political talk shows on television who are there to cause conflict, not because of their knowledge or their sociocultural level". This was stated by Marina González Sanz, member of the department of language Spanish, Linguistics and Theory of Literature of the University of Seville, on the occasion of a seminar she gave at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra. The XIV GRADUN Workshop, organized by the project 'Public discourse', was entitled 'El speech mediático-ideológico. The political talk show'.

The linguist explained that the creation of disputes and conflicts within political talk shows are part of the media mechanisms used today on television to attract viewers.

What characterizes the language used in today's political talk shows?

The use of language in the talk shows is characterized above all by three constants that obey the double ideological-media factor. On the one hand, they are colloquialized in order to lighten the political tone a little, since it can sometimes be difficult to understand for some viewers or radio listeners. Also, this colloquialization has an ideological function because some voters, especially from lower socio-cultural strata, tend to vote for politicians they understand better.

The second factor is employment of verbal discourtesy, i.e. verbal acts that damage the image of another person. Mostly it is interruptions, disqualifications, insults, and showing disagreement with the other person in a blunt and very intensified way. It is used as a media mechanism, there is a kind of morbid desire to see violence and see how people fight, and as an ideological mechanism: if I disqualify the opponent, in the end my group will be strengthened.

Finally, the development of an argumentative speech : persuade them not to change the channel and persuade them to vote for the ideological option I am defending.

You describe the end of speech as ideological and, at the same time, mediatic, what does this double end mean?

The media purpose means that everything I do is aimed at increasing audience levels or maintaining them. The ideological purpose is related to the defense of my ideological option. So in the talk show any linguistic phenomenon can be ascribed to one, the other or both of these factors.

How does this ideological end influence?

It can be done through mechanisms that we all know and are aware of, for example, with the defense of the party's own arguments. The problem is that there are other mechanisms that are more powerful but more difficult to locate. It would be, for example, the use of euphemism to try to avoid mentioning things that are not good for my political party, the ambiguous speech , metaphors... It is a "I convince you but you are not realizing that I am convincing you".

And as for the media treatment, do you think the tone and language employee currently used in political talk shows is appropriate?

It depends on the parameters from which you look at it. In terms of effectiveness, it is clear that they are adequate because, nowadays, the political talk show is one of the programs with the highest ratings in its time slot. However, from a linguistic point of view, they are not adequate discursive practices. They can even become dangerous if we think that most of the receivers are people who are forming their discursive internship and can take examples that in the end are not correct.

So, can the use of language in political talk shows affect the way one expresses oneself in one's daily life?

Of course. People develop their discursive practices on the basis of the discourses they receive in all contexts and, in this sense, the media context is very important because they spend a lot of time with television and radio. So, if you are learning to communicate and you see every day on TV how people insult each other, shout at each other or interrupt each other, you end up seeing this internship as something normal and you imitate it.

Why have political talk shows evolved towards verbal discourtesy?

It seems to be a copy of the social chronicle talk shows. The processes of colloquialization have been seen for years in programs subject 'Sálvame'. The fact that people shout at each other and insult each other talking about gossip and heart topics, whether we like it or not, creates a huge audience. The political talk show is imitating these patterns to achieve the same audience success.

Another problem is that many of the talk shows are part of broader programs, subject magazine, so the characteristics that define the rest of the program are also applied to its political talk shows.