The Image is the Message: Instagram Marketing and the 2016 Presidential Primary Season

Abstract

The 2016 presidential primary candidates expanded their social media marketing campaigns to include the image- and video-centered social network platform Instagram. To explore the role that images play in framing political character development and to identify which images received higher levels of engagement, content analyses were performed on the top seven primary candidates’ Instagram accounts. Results indicate that candidates most frequently employ the ideal candidate frame in their images, which also garnered the highest number of user likes and comments. Results also reveal that among Instagram image attributes, candidates frequently and successfully used text within their images, but filters were inconsistently applied across the candidates.

KEYWORDS:

• Content Analysis
• Framing
• Images
• Instagram
• 2016 Presidential Primary

Notes

Governor Gary Johnson entered the presidential primary on January 6, 2016.

Senator Ted Cruz had two separate verified accounts: SenTedCruz and CruzforPresident. Data from both accounts were combined and used in the analysis.

We sought to limit the scope of this study to one type of visual communication modality and examine the attributes of fixed and still images that did not include sound and movement. The researchers did video detection manually for the content analyses. The Beautifeye software does not distinguish whether an Instagram post is a video or image and therefore analyzes the static, frozen image of a video that individuals see when within the Instagram feed. Therefore, videos were included the quantitative analysis of filters.

Unlike Grabe and Bucy (2009), who coded only for the presence of a subdimension frame, we assess the strength of a frame by determining the primary frame and, if relevant, a secondary frame.

Given the reliance on text graphics, it was noted whether text was a dominant feature. Then the text’s meaning was used to determine its coding classification. For example, “thank you” images were included in the compassion/affinity gestures category. Second, police officers and firefighters were incorporated into statesmanship/patriotic symbols category. Third, the ordinary people subdimension was also expanded to include “ordinary” candidate-related activities, such as eating, exercising, or playing basketball. Fourth, the compassion subdimension category of admiring women was also expanded to include admiring men (i.e., admiring individuals). Fifth, adjustments were also made for collages, which consisted of two to five images incorporated into one Instagram image. Each image in the collage was analyzed and the most dominant themes from across the images were used for the primary and secondary frames.

Johnson removed one of the top ten most liked images and three of the top ten most commented on images between the time the data were downloaded and when we analyzed the images. These images were replaced with the next most highly engaged image.

Two videos were part of the original top ten most liked Instagram posts for Kasich, whereas nine videos were included as part of the top seventy most commented on Instagram posts among Sanders, Clinton, Kasich, Rubio, and Trump. These videos were removed from the analysis and replaced with the next highest engaged image posted.