The humor in political communication: the Spanish Constitution in the column "political scenes" of Campmany

Abstract

The work studies the articles published in the column "Political scenes", during the three months that ended in the ratification of democracy in Spain through the new Constitution. The humor from the columnism of Jaime Campmany allows to notice the scope of freedom in which he managed to write. This work proposes the study of a type of journalism that made its way in the difficult years of the political transition and that allowed to introduce certain topics from the prism of humor. Communication studies on humor illustrate the complex role that it plays in the formation of perceptions. The ability to use and recognize humor is not trivial, but it can explain the success in a group or in different social contexts. The years between the death of Franco and the advent of socialism in Spain were marked by the approval of the Law of Political Reform, the Constitution of 1978 and successive electoral processes. With a methodology of descriptive analysis, it has been possible to establish that Campmany addressed in his political column the public affairs of the nation, specifically the approval of the constitutional text, from a conservative position and with a great sense of humor.