Abstract

On October 25, 2020, 7.5 million Chileans (the largest number in history) voted in a plebiscite to choose between maintaining the current constitution — which, in its fundamental aspects, has been in force since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet — or creating an Assembly that would draft a new one. This process arose from an agreement between almost all political parties with parliamentary representation and was motivated by the mobilizations and protests of the so-called ‘Chilean social outbreak’ of 2019. Chilean electoral legislation only allows political television advertising for a certain number of days before the election, in particular time slots in which all candidates or options present their videos (spots, testimonies, microprograms, or whatever they wish). Each party has a specific time, based on its results in the last parliamentary election. While the largest parties have several minutes, the groups of independent citizens, only seconds. Despite these unequal conditions, since its influence on voting intention is limited (Uribe et al., 2007), this strip of electoral content — or ‘electoral strip’ — has historically been considered as a relevant cultural product and a fascinating object of study for political communication in Chile (Piñuel-Raigada, 1990; Moke, 2006; Matus, 2019). The plebiscite result was indisputable, as 80% of the voters approved the idea of creating a new constitution. However, it is interesting to observe how both sides (Approve vs. Reject) configured their campaigns. That because, unlike other elections, in this case there were no candidates and also the right-wing leaders divided: while some supported the constitutional change, others advocated for defending the institutional legacy of Pinochet, of strong conservative and capitalist inspiration. This study seeks to characterize, from a qualitative approach, the campaigns’ visual representations in favor of the Approve option and the Reject option, considering that both were grounded on an abstract and complex promise: institutional change or continuity. Based on a preliminary thematic analysis and applying categories developed in a previous study (Matus, 2019), I expect to analyze the audiovisual pieces with particular emphasis on their reference and figurative exercises. The first case corresponds to the textual representation of entities with material existence, such as a mountain, a car, or a person. The second case corresponds to the textual representation of entities with no material existence, such as emotions and values. By this, I hope to recognize and contrast the visual discursive practices of both commands and offer a critical look at the country’s political visual communication trends.