Discourse, ritual, and emotion in the television coverage of the “Habemus Papam”: a comparison of the BBC and RTVE broadcasts of the election of Leo XIV

Abstract

Purpose. The announcement of the Habemus Papam, broadcast live globally, is an event laden with religious, political, and media symbolism. This work analyzes how television constructs, dramatizes, and legitimizes the figure of the new pontiff through visual, discursive, and narrative resources. Methodology. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, the television broadcasts of the public broadcasters BBC and RTVE are examined based on categories from critical discourse analysis and media ceremonials. Results and Conclusions. The study reveals how the media reconfigure religious ritual into a communicative structure, articulating elements of solemnity, expectation, and collective emotion. It also highlights the central role of television as a symbolic intermediary between the ecclesiastical institution and the global audience. The conclusions suggest that the broadcast of the Habemus Papam not only communicates an event but also produces and renews a framework of meaning where power, faith, and spectacle converge, and reveals the significant differences in the reinterpretation that each network performs in personalizing the event. Original contribution. In our study, we determined that the BBC employs a narrative style that cultivates distance, emphasizing contextualization, with a discourse accessible to a multi-faith audience. In contrast, RTVE's coverage emphasizes the proximity of beliefs, appealing to audience identification and prioritizing emotional elements and solemnity. This research contributes to the categorization of the editorial lines of the thematic agendas of the public television channels analyzed.