A study of the role of television political talk show in creating political public relations

Abstract

Television political talk shows function strongly as an intermediary between the politician and the public in building political public relations. The purpose of this study is to study the role played by television political talk shows in creating political public relations. To create political public relations, the role of the political talk show for the politician and the role of the political talk show for the people were studied separately. The research has been conducted as a mixed research method based on both qualitative and quantitative methods as study methodologies. To collect qualitative data, two political talk shows broadcast on the government channels National Television and ITN and two political talk shows broadcast on the private channels Derana and Sirasa were subjected to thematic content analysis. To collect quantitative data, data was collected by selecting 100 people who watch political talk shows in Gampaha district, which has the highest number of registered voters in Sri Lanka. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for data analysis. Findings showed that television political talk shows provide politicians with the opportunity and sufficient airtime to express their views, state their policies, and respond to current events or controversies through live engagement with viewers. On the other hand, political talk shows were found to help create political awareness among viewers, shape public opinion, influence attitudes, raise the standing of politicians in the eyes of the public, and bring people closer to the political process and the politician. Accordingly, it can be indicated that television political talk shows play a major role as a force for creating political public relations between the public and the politician.