The impact of entertainment television: political communication in Big Brother Bulgaria

The diverse and complex role of the influential television medium to educate and entertain the audience and at the same time to be a political communicator, these days is unified in the television phenomenon of 21st century – the reality television. A diversity of reality television shows address and communicate political discourse in modern, attractive comedy style talk. However, the existing academic literature considering the possible political nature of reality shows, such as Big Brother is insufficient, forming an extensive research gap. The present thesis investigates through a qualitative content analysis the communication of political issues on the most internationally famous reality format Big Brother, with main focus on the Bulgarian franchise that would illustrate new, different approach of the media systems in Eastern Europe. In this sense, the main research question ‘How are political issues communicated in Big Brother Bulgaria?’ altogether with the following qualitative analysis led to a reasonable findings that the show is politically oriented and socially responsible medium for political communication, without the prospect to favor specific political aims. In addition, the media frames utilized in the show that form the political talk in Big Brother Bulgaria demonstrate an objective, similar to the news media approach in addressing political issues in the media world.