Image, stereotypes and personality traits in political discourse during electoral campaigns: Nuevo Leon, Mexico (2015)

Abstract

In recent years, the candidates in the elections of the democratic countries around the world appeal, in the social imaginary, for the construction of an image that is considered as convenient by the voters, regardless of the connection between that image and the reality, but it is always about the personality traits or characteristics which were constructed based more on social knowledge rather than psychology. The election processes in the Northeastern Mexico produce several types of argumentative strategies and discourses in which different agents attempt to get the citizens’ votes by appealing for one’s own virtues and the vices of others. The purpose of this work is to describe the strategies that form such discourse, as well as its production, circulation and reception conditions in the election campaigns for the governor of the state of Nuevo Leon (Mexico) in 2015. The analysis is completed with the results of several surveys and the voting; it attempts to verify the effect of the arguments and discursive strategies on the voters.