Political Entertainment, Digital Interaction: A Systematic Review of Politainment Studies

Authors : Selçuk Çetin

Pages : 126-147

Doi:10.53048/johass.1799758

View : 217 | Download : 648

Publication Date : 2025-10-26

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study aims to reveal the general trends in the international literature concerning the increasingly prominent phenomenon of politainment within the field of political communication. Politainment refers to the production of entertaining content by political actors in an efford to reach voters, blending political messages with element of popular culture. The study focuses on academic publications to identify scholarly trends in the field of politainment. In this context, 17 English language articles indexed in Scopus, each of which includes the term “politainment” in its title, abstract or keywords and has received at least five citiations were selected for analysis. These studies were examined through descriptive analysis, with a systematic evaluation of their subjects, data collection tecniques, research contexts, platforms utilized, and key findings. In line with the study’s limitations, the finding suggest that most prominent research emphasized social media platforms especially TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) which are predominantly used for producing entertaining content to enhance political visibility. However, the communication practices observed on these platforms tend not to foster deliberative interaction with citizens; rather, they tend to reduce citizens to passive spectators. Few studies criticaly engage with the deeper implications of the politainment phenomenon.
Keywords : siyasal iletişim, politainment, yeni medya, sosyal medya platformları

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