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Abstract
This article looks at how politicians can leverage the structural and functional properties of social media platforms with a strong visual component for political image making and storytelling in a context of permanent campaigning. Specifically, it focuses on Justin Trudeau’s uses of Instagram to build and strengthen his public image of leadership through the development of largely positive, theme-based visual political narratives. This research offers an analysis of the content of 145 posts that appeared on his personal Instagram feed during his first year as prime minister of Canada (between October 19, 2015, and October 19, 2016). It allows us to identify key narratives designed to reach out to, connect with, and engage members of the public and traditional media.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank and acknowledge colleagues who made very valuable and constructive suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper as well as on literature to read, including Alex Marland (Memorial University) and Frédérick Bastien (Université de Montréal). The authors would like to recognize the invaluable research assistance of Carol-Ann Rouillard, Samantha Durand, and Georgios Tzoumakas.
Funding
The study was partly supported in its exploratory stages by funds provided by the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and by Emerson College.
Notes
1 Gurevitch et al. (Citation2009) point out that “[t]elevision remains dominant as the most highly resourced and far-reaching medium of mass communication; it thus continues to be the locus for ‘media events’ (Dayan & Katz, Citation1992) and the main source of political information for most people” (p. 169).
2 The mediatization of politics can be defined as the “process through which the importance of the media and their spillover effects on political actors and their behaviours has increased” (Strömbäck & Esser, Citation2014, p. 6).
4 Typologies of stages of performance by Corner and Pels (Citation2003) were used in the context of this study.
5 http://www.catie.ca/sites/default/files/2012-HIV-AIDS-attitudinal-tracking-survey-final-report.pdf.
6 The Invictus Games is an international sporting event that was launched by Prince Harry of Wales. It offers the opportunity to current or former members of armed services internationally who are either sick or injured to compete in different sports.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Vincent Raynauld
Dr. Vincent Raynauld is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College and affiliate professor in the Département de lettres et communication sociale at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. He is also serving as Research Associate in the Groupe de Recherche en Communication Politique (GRCP) (Canada). His areas of research interest and publication include political communication, social media, research methods, e-politics, and political marketing. E-mail: [email protected]
Mireille Lalancette
Dr. Mireille Lalancette is a full professor in the Département de lettres et communication sociale at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and Groupe de recherche en communication politique (GRCP) researcher. Her areas of research interest and publication include political communication, social media, argumentation, and gender and politics.