The Danish TV series Borgen begins right away with claiming that the elections are sort of a chess game and that the strategies should be giving out a couple of meaningful messages, ridiculing the opponents in order to win. Right after this the make-up artist who’s making Birgitte Nyberg -who’ll soon win the elections- ready and removing the details of her sleepless night, ironically says that Laugesen from the labor party is more like an advertiser than a politician. All these elements in the beginning actually give us the main concepts of the political communication of the democratic, capitalist society.
Throughout the first episode we watch the last three days of the Danish election. The breaking point of this process is the disputation of the party leaders on the national TV. We see the examples of media being under control of the politics since party leaders actually demand what questions should be asked and where the interview should take place beforehand. On the other hand we also observer media channels being harsh against the politicians and their answers in order to get views and ratings via speculative headlines. Spin doctors/PR agents hiding controversial events such as the death of the PR manager of the prime minister but still collecting evidence under-hand when necessary so that his party can win. The deals on immigration policies along with immigrants’ rights of labor are also seen just as a tactic or a nominal condition just for the public eye, meaning neither sides seem to actually care how immigrants should be treated. All they want is to be the winner of this “game” using different elements to get votes and support establishing/demolishing coalitions when necessary even right before the election day.
The most memorable, important part of the serie’s first episode is probably the disputation scene as we mentioned above in terms of political communications. All leaders during their talks stick with their written speeches whilst Birgitte Nyberg refuses this, driving her spin doctor crazy, and improvises. She professionally starts her speech by stating that they all know the questions before-hand since they’re the ones who demand those to be asked. Then continues talking about gaining weight/not fitting her dress that she was supposed to wear as if she’s talking at a random event creating this image of “I’m just a regular person” who wants to serve you to build a new Denmark. Brigitte’s natural speech from heart definitely deserves the spotlight, however it’s not the highlight material since labor party leader Laugesen revealing the documents of Prime Minister using state funds for personal needs in our case for her trouble-minded wife deserves the trophy. Brigitte profits from the reveal that she refused when the spin doctor first came up with. Finally at the very end we see the media boss defining the speculative night as a great success.
Borgen’s first episode sagely defines the today’s relationship between media and politics. As clearly seen in the serie it is a “war.” It’s a war where anything goes. Creating “pseudo-events”, forcing questions and answers, hiding up events that are not supposed to show up. Speculating facts, using normalities and ordinaries as tactics. Tricking the empty spectacle into believing that they care and so on. At the end of the day in the free democratic world there’s freedom of speech and everyone’s doing their job.
