This article analyzes popularization, defined as the convergence of politics and popular television culture. Despite ongoing social concerns about popularization and the increased academic attention for it, there is very little culturally and historically grounded analysis of what exactly popularization entails, whether it has expanded or changed over time, and whether it supplants relevant political information. In fact, what is meant by popularization, sometimes also labeled as, for instance tabloidization or infotainment, differs across disciplines and researchers. We investigate the claim that political television journalism has succumbed to the rules of popular culture and has therefore become irrelevant and even detrimental to public discourse, by examining a Dutch current affairs show, Brandpunt that aired for almost 40 years. We approach our historical analysis with a fourfold understanding of popularization as expressed through topics, narratives, audiovisuals and audience participation. Initially, the topics of all separate items of all episodes were coded?. Based on these results, 25 episodes were selected for further analysis. Narratives, program elements and audio-/ visual characteristics were transcribed. Next, these transcripts were coded and finally an interpretative analysis, linking codes with the theoretical concepts of popularization was done. The first analysis shows that between 1960 and 1996 1733 episodes were broadcasted. About a quarter of all items dealt with events that took place in foreign countries. About 12% of the items were interviews, but only in 6% percent a politician was actively present. Overall, the most often discussed topic is ‘government operations’, followed by ‘foreign affairs’ and ‘crime’. The first two topics are present throughout the years; the latter topic prevails in the nineties. “Popular” topics such as ‘disasters’, ‘calamities’ and ‘human interest’ are only marginally present. Further analysis of narratives, audiovisuals and audience participation is in progress and will be included in the final paper and presentation.
