Política y vida privada en las elecciones al Parlamento Vasco de 2012. Estudio del formato "Un día con el candidato"/Political and private life in the 2012 Basque parliamentary election. Study of the format "A day with the candidate"

Introduction: Politics play a leading role in today's society and this protagonism is not only based on the political discourse of candidates and parties but also on the exposure of the most personal aspects of politicians. That is why in recent times politicians try to show and share more about their professional and most private spheres. Methods: This study is based on the in-depth content analysis of four feature articles about the candidates participating in the 2012 Basque parliamentary election. Research results: Despite the efforts of the media to offer a balanced and neutral framing of the candidates in the four feature articles, there are substantial differences in terms of genres and photojournalistic styles, as well as the linguistic treatment of images. Discussion: The objective is not to determine how the candidate is perceived, but to establish how the candidate is shown, based on the analysis and measurement of several variables. Conclusions: There is a clear discrepancy between the textual narrative and the images that accompany the feature articles, which creates a cognitive dissonance in readers.