La création d’images politiques et le cadrage visuel sur Instagram : Un regard sur la représentation du leadership du Canadien Justin Trudeau

Abstract

The success of political leadership is crucially dependent upon the ability to perform successfully in media-based interrogative encounters [...] Contemporary politician performance is not limited to such encounterspoliticians must manage a social media presence and engage in niche targeting of constituencies through online appearances (CRAIG 2016, 171).While digital media have become a central component of the contemporary political communication mediascape, many politicians have still not fully embraced this digital shift. However, Justin Trudeau and his team understood quickly that these platforms were powerful public outreach and engagement tools. Since his election as prime minister of Canada, Trudeau has been able to exploit the imagemaking and framing capabilities of digital media platforms to roll out a strategic narrative about his political leadership. Building on an analysis of all posts on his Instagram account during the year following his election as prime minister of Canada, this article is taking a close look at how Trudeau turned to visual framing in his Instagram posts to generate strategic political narratives, which emphasized and reinforced seven traits of his political leadership: 1) innovative leader at the helm of a prosperous country; 2) leader dedicated to positive policies; 3) leader dedicated to national unity; 4) leader promoting and respecting minority and marginalized communities; 5) comforting and reassuring leader; 6) leader valuing international dialogue and respect; 7) relatable leader. In doing so, this research work provides insights of interest into a specific dimension of the visual political communication strategy deployed by elected official on Instagram. More importantly, this article contributes to ongoing academic work on dynamics of visual political image-making and framing on social media in Canada and abroad.Si les médias numériques sont devenus un élément central du paysage médiatique de la communication politique contemporaine, de nombreux acteur.trice.s politiques n'ont pas encore pleinement intégré ce changement numérique. Cependant, Justin Trudeau et son équipe ont rapidement compris que ces plateformes étaient de puissants outils de sensibilisation et d'engagement du public. Depuis son élection au poste de Premier ministre du Canada, Trudeau a su exploiter les capacités de création d'images et de cadrage des plateformes de médias numériques pour déployer un récit stratégique sur son leadership politique. En s'appuyant sur une analyse de tous les messages de son compte Instagram au cours de l'année qui a suivi son élection au poste de premier ministre du Canada, cet article examine de près comment Trudeau s'est tourné vers le cadrage visuel de ses messages Instagram pour générer des récits politiques stratégiques qui soulignent et renforcent sept traits de son leadership politique : 1) leader novateur à la tête d'un pays prospère ; 2) leader voué à des politiques positives ; 3) leader voué à l'unité nationale ; 4) leader promouvant et respectant les communautés...

Selfies and Speeches of a President at War: Volodymyr Zelensky’s Strategy of Spectacularization on Instagram

“…One of the strategies identified by various studies of online political communication is the spectacularization of the content of involved actors, which is closely linked to the use of image and video (López-Rabadán & Doménech-Fabregat, 2021). The visual format plays a central role in the construction of the political image (Schill, 2012) and its captivating nature allows political actors to create almost personalized bonds with the audience (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2020). From the point of view of the latter, another resource related to the use of the image in the context of politainment in the online sphere is memes, the power of persuasion of which are no longer ignored by parties (Zamora et al, 2021).…”

“…In this social network, candidates can make themselves known professionally or from a personal point of view through the deliberate selection of the elements they include in their images, such as symbols or location (Bellido-Pérez & Gordillo-Rodríguez, 2022;Gordillo-Rodríguez & Bellido-Pérez, 2021). Instagram's visual nature is the key to its success among parties and candidates at the international level (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2020) because it allows these users to build an image of leadership based on positive attributes such as honesty, sincerity, credibility, kindness, or leadership ability (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2019). In this way, Instagram functions as a "virtual billboard" (Muñoz & Towner, 2017, p. 22) where self-referential staging is displayed and programmatic content is left aside (Ferré-Pavia & Codina, 2022).…”