Photojournalistic image of political leaders in election campaigs: framing, scenery and gestures

Abstract

Image analysis of the political leaders in election campaign in 2004 through the published photographies in the newspapers Abc, El Mundo, El País and La Razón. The main objective is to compare and to quantify the photographic presence of the main political leaders and the treatment of it in each mass media. An analysis of content of 267 images is carried out, and the result shows predominance of close-ups, gesture impression with optimistic connotations, an identifiable scenery of election situations, and an qualitative treatment of the image quite similar in the newspapers analysed. The main conclusions are: a) a stereotyped and foreseeable image of the political leader in election campaign is shown, b) the scenery contextualises and emphasizes the image of the political leader, c) there is a tendency to predominate the image of the political leader with more ideological affinity in some mass media.