Posting and framing politics: a content analysis of celebrities’, athletes’, and influencers’ Instagram political content

ABSTRACT

Instagram and its famous personae are nowadays an important news source for many users, which may stem from celebrities’ and social media influencers’ (SMIs) repeated engagement with political topics on their otherwise entertainment- or lifestyle-oriented accounts. Yet, to date, no study has systematically investigated the type and framing of this political content. This content analysis examined 1,256 Instagram posts and 2,936 stories of the 59 most popular opinion leaders (19 athletes, 20 celebrities and 20 SMIs) in Western countries, and documented, for the first time, the prevalence of types of political topics and their framing. Results from multilevel analyses suggest that SMIs and athletes are more likely to post lifestyle-oriented political topics, while celebrities engage more with conventional topics. Moreover, political topics appear more often in ephemeral than permanent content. Generic frames were overall rare, but the most dominant frame of political content was the human impact frame.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media influencers
• celebrities
• athletes
• social media
• political information
• frames

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For the purpose of this study, the categories of artistic and consumer culture celebrities were mixed, with models and former reality TV stars considered alongside singers and actors due to their strong establishment in popular culture.

2 The MIMIc project deals with the role of (social) media in adolescents' lives. More information on the project can be found on our website (https://www.projectmimic.eu/) and on the OSF project page (https://osf.io/r8c9t/?view_only=232a1495616d4ef0a2b380e5434b8606)

3 This study coded the personalities’ gender as perceived by the authors as gender identities could not be assessed.

4 https://osf.io/as6rj/?view_only=e319fac038ea45ac89930a6f4ed4ed36

5 Please note that in the same post or story, lifestyle and formal topics could co-occur.

6 The powerlessness frame was excluded from the model because it did not occur in one or more subgroups.

7 Men and celebrities were reference categories.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant (grant agreement 852317).

Notes on contributors

Anaëlle Gonzalez

Anaëlle Gonzalez is a PhD researcher at the School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Belgium, supervised by L. Vandenbosch. Her research is situated at the intersection of communication science, psychology and political science, and focuses on investigating the role of social media and entertainment fiction in the development of the political self in adolescents.

Desiree Schmuck

Desiree Schmuck (PhD, 2017, University of Vienna) is a tenure-track assistant professor for Digital Media Effects at the School for Mass Communication Research of KU Leuven. Her research focuses on the effects of digital media use on indicators of social cohesion including individuals’ subjective well-being, democratic engagement and intergroup relations.

Laura Vandenbosch

Laura Vandenbosch is an associate Professor at the School for Mass Communication Research (BOF-ZAP research professorship grant), KU Leuven, Belgium. The relations between media and well-being are the core subject of her research, leading to international publications in several fields including developmental psychology, sexology, body image, social relationships and communication theory.