Vidéocratie is a neologism formed of Latin video (“I see”) and of the Greek kratos (“to be able”, “law”). In the contemporary companies, the vidéocratie indicates a political regime dominated by the “capacity of the image”.

Definitions

For the anglophone Internet site Unword, which seeks to give the definition of the new words appearing in the English language, the vidéocratie ('' videocracy '') is “the capacity of the images in the contemporary companies” , “the paramount impact of television, the cinema, Internet and publicity on the public opinion, the policy, marketing, etc” .

Synonyms and uses

The neologisms “Médiacratie” “Télécratie”, “Télédémocratie” and “Télépopulisme” (see Populisme) can be regarded as synonyms of “vidéocratie”. These terms are generally employed in the field of the Journalisme and the Sociologie to describe a drift of the political message based more on the form (the image, the Mise in scene of the capacity) that on bottom (the ideas, the democratic debate). More rarely, it is also used to describe the general influence of the images on the daily life of the citizens.

Origins

The term was born with the end from the Années 1980, with the failure of the political regimes based on the Idéologie (Idéocratie).

The Italian videocrazia

The word was employed in Italy as from 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi becomes President of the council (the equivalent of Prime Minister) for the first time. The use of “videocrazia” is essential in the Italian media with the return to the capacity of Silvio Berlusconi between 2001 and 2006. At the same time politician and owner of the most powerful group of media of the peninsula (Fininvest), this one was characterized by its tendency to use its own television channels to support its government action and its Personnification of the capacity.

The term is frequently used by the French-speaking media to deal with the Italian policy of 2001 to 2006. April 7th, 2006, the day before the defeat to the legislative elections of the alliance of the Italian right parties directed by Silvio Berlusconi, the free regional newspaper Charente uses the term in its leading article to describe the stakes of the poll: “If Berlusconi were beaten, that would show that the Italians finally became aware of the difference between social propaganda and economic realities and which they live (…). Monday evening, one will know if the vidéocratie founded since its engagement in policy by Berlusconi will enable him to keep the reins of Italy or so in spite of the frightening power of audio-visual means concentrated between the same hands, the Italians will put an end to the adventure in which the Cavaliere involved. ”

The philosopher Pierre Musso question however the use of the term to describe the policy of Silvio Berlusconi: “Silvio Berlusconi constitutes phenomenon original, and even case single, since he is the only head of undertaking of the sector of the media which reaches, twice, with the functions of Prime Minister in a great democracy. The come to power of the leader of the large company of the communication answers the crisis of the political representation and inaugurates in Latin Europe, a " néo-politique". Like any figure symbolic system, the image of Berlusconi is ambivalent and cannot leave indifferent. If Berlusconi causes so many reactions of adhesion or rejection, it is because it registers all its public activity in the space of the image, the seduction and the emotion, more than in the rational and traditional field of the political representation. It can be the director of the public debate by dramatizing it around simplistic cleavages, in particular for or against the State, for or against the tax… It thus promotes a made policy of passions and beliefs, as in a televisual fiction. The phenomenon does not raise therefore the populism, even of the " télépopulisme". ”

Sources

• “the Berlusconi phenomenon: neither populism nor vidéocratie, but néo-policy”, article of Pierre Musso appeared in the file People, popular, populism of the review Hermes n° 42 in 2005.
• “teledemocratic dictatorship”, article of Carlo Freccero published in Nouvel Observateur of April 6th, 2006.
• “Language and Politics in Italy from Moro to Berlusconi”, article of Osvaldo Croci published in Newspaper off Modern Italian Studies (Flight 6 N: 3) in 2001.
• “Télépopulisme”, article of Cynthia Fleury published in Humanity the September 27th 2006
• Bernard Stiegler, Télécratie against the democracy. Open letter with the political representatives , ED. Flammarion, 2006 (ISBN: 2-08-210569-5).

Related bonds

• Médiacratie
• political Depoliticization
• Marketing
• Put in scene of the political power
• Peoplisation
• Expression or political neologism
• Purism (linguistic)

Random links:

Blanzac (Haute-Loire) | Paleokastro | Toulouse (group) | Mikaëla Fisher | Merry Bromberger