Instagram in political self-presentation: a visual analysis of candidates’ posts in the 2019 European parliament election campaign in Poland

Abstract

This article reviews currently available literature on the role of Instagram in political communication and reports on the results of the analysis of 1976 Instagram posts of the most active politicians during the 2019 European parliamentary election campaign in Poland. With the aid of quantitative thematic analysis and qualitative visual rhetorical analysis, we identify the main patterns of self-representation of candidates and compare the forms of visualization and typical strategies of building ethos and mobilizing the voters across parties. We prove that traditional representations of candidates (delivering speeches, canvassing, shaking hands) and national (rather than European) symbols tend to dominate. We conclude with observations on the increase in personalization of politics, professionalization of political campaigning, and strong communitarian identification.