The Power of Political Image: Justin Trudeau, Instagram, and Celebrity Politics

Abstract

This article explores dynamics of online image management and its impact on leadership in a context of digital permanent campaigning and celebrity politics in Canada. Recent studies have shown that images can play a critical role when members of the public are evaluating politicians. Specifically, voters are looking for specific qualities in political leaders, including honesty, intelligence, friendliness, sincerity, and trustworthiness, when making electoral decisions. Image management techniques can help create the impression that politicians possess these qualities. Heads of governments using social media to capture attention through impactful images or videos on an almost daily basis seems like a new norm. Specifically, this article takes interest in Justin Trudeau’s use of Instagram during the first year immediately following his election on October 19, 2015. Through a hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach, we examine how Trudeau and his party convey a specific image to voters in a context of permanent and increasingly personalized campaigning. We do so through an analysis of his Instagram feed focusing on different elements, including how he frames his governing style visually, how his personal life is used on his Instagram to support the Liberal Party of Canada’s values and ideas, and how celebrity culture codes are mobilized to discuss policy issues such as environment, youth, and technology. This analysis sheds light on the effects and implications of image management in Canada. More generally, it offers a much-needed look at image-based e-politicking and contributes to the academic literature on social media, permanent campaigning, as well as celebrity and politics in Canada.

Building a political image on Instagram: A study of the personal profile of Santiago Abascal (Vox) in 2018

“…In other words, they resort to Instagram not only for institutional purposes and for mobilising the electorate, but also for disseminating information concerning their private lives. This trend corresponds to the 'celebrity politician' phenomenon, at present one of the main characteristics of political marketing on social media (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2017;Quevedo-Redondo & Portalés-Oliva, 2017).…”

“…In brief, studies of the political use of this social networking site indicate by and large that personal Instagram profiles are used in campaign periods as visual diaries and to disseminate electoral announcements (Filimonov et al, 2016;Larsson, 2017;López-Rabadán & Doménech-Fabregat, 2018;Quevedo-Redondo & Portalés-Oliva, 2017). In pre-and postelection periods, in contrast, it is predominantly employed to present politicians in the exercise of their duties (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2017;Liebhart & Bernhardt, 2017;Selva-Ruiz & Caro-Castaño, 2017). In other words, they resort to Instagram not only for institutional purposes and for mobilising the electorate, but also for disseminating information concerning their private lives.…”

Instagram y la espectacularización de las crisis políticas. Las 5W de la imagen digital en el proceso independentista de Cataluña

“…Tradicionalmente, las imágenes han sido un recurso estratégico en las campañas electorales por su influencia en la forma en que el público interpreta los mensajes políticos y evalúa a los candidatos (Schill, 2012). Sin embargo, su im-portancia ha aumentado en las últimas décadas por dos factores (Lalancette;Raynauld, 2017): -el infotainment ha convertido a la televisión en la principal fuente de información política (Jebril; Albaek; De-Vreese, 2013), consolidando la primacía de la imagen y la emotividad en comunicación política (Sartori, 1998); -la web 2.0 ha dinamizado un uso estratégico por parte de los partidos (López-Rabadán; López-Meri; Doménech-Fabregat, 2016).…”

President Joko Widodo Communication in the #Baliaman Vlog

“…Secara keseluruhan visual, karena media awalnya adalah vlog yang ditampilkan di sosial media Youtube lalu berpindah dari 3D (tiga dimensi, gambar bergerak) menuju 2D (gambar statis) membawa konsekuensi makna. Tetapi seperti yang dipaparkan di pendahuluan, penulis mencangkokkan teori Gilles Deleuze yang secara konsep memiliki pembacaan multiplisitas, yakni keragaman pintu masuk (Ageza & Mubarak, 2015 (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2017).…”