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Personalisation on Instagram - A quantitative content analysis of prominent Swedish politicians’ Instagram posts

Cöster, Angelica LU and Dahlberg, Victor (2018) SKOK11 20181
Department of Strategic Communication
Abstract
Personalisation is a concept which is based on the idea that focus is increasingly directed at the individual politician and his or her personal characteristics. Social media, such as Instagram, has revived the concept since the possibilities for personalised political communication have increased. This study aimed to examine if personalised communication among prominent Swedish politicians on Instagram has increased during the current parliamentary term (2014-2018), if personalised communication gains more traction than other types of content on Instagram and, finally, if politicians in-corporate private aspects when conveying political messages on Instagram. To achieve this aim a quantitative content analysis of prominent Swedish... (More)
Personalisation is a concept which is based on the idea that focus is increasingly directed at the individual politician and his or her personal characteristics. Social media, such as Instagram, has revived the concept since the possibilities for personalised political communication have increased. This study aimed to examine if personalised communication among prominent Swedish politicians on Instagram has increased during the current parliamentary term (2014-2018), if personalised communication gains more traction than other types of content on Instagram and, finally, if politicians in-corporate private aspects when conveying political messages on Instagram. To achieve this aim a quantitative content analysis of prominent Swedish politicians’ Instagram posts (n=1641) was conducted. The findings show that the proportion of personalised posts was large but it had not increased during the current parliamentary term. Furthermore, personalised content was associated with higher levels of popularity and engagement but the study could not provide evidence for this being statistically significant for all politicians at all times. Moreover, the study found that Swedish politicians increasingly are incorporating private aspects when conveying political messages and that these hybrids, as we have named them, are receiving more popularity than political messages that are strictly political. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Konceptet personalisering innebär att fokus allt oftare riktas mot individuella politiker och deras personliga egenskaper. Sociala medier, så som Instagram, har gjort konceptet än mer aktuellt då möjligheterna att politiskt kommunicera personligt har ökat genom dessa. Studien ämnade att undersöka om personaliserad kommunikation av framstående svenska politiker på Instagram har ökat under den senaste mandatperioden, om personaliserat innehåll är mer attraktivt än andra innehållstyper på Instagram, samt om framstående svenska politiker inkorporerar privata aspekter när de kommunicerar politiska budskap. För att uppnå detta syfte utfördes en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svenska politikers instagraminlägg (n=1641). Resultatet visar att... (More)
Konceptet personalisering innebär att fokus allt oftare riktas mot individuella politiker och deras personliga egenskaper. Sociala medier, så som Instagram, har gjort konceptet än mer aktuellt då möjligheterna att politiskt kommunicera personligt har ökat genom dessa. Studien ämnade att undersöka om personaliserad kommunikation av framstående svenska politiker på Instagram har ökat under den senaste mandatperioden, om personaliserat innehåll är mer attraktivt än andra innehållstyper på Instagram, samt om framstående svenska politiker inkorporerar privata aspekter när de kommunicerar politiska budskap. För att uppnå detta syfte utfördes en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svenska politikers instagraminlägg (n=1641). Resultatet visar att andelen personligt innehåll på Instagram var stor men fann ingen ökning under den senaste mandatperioden. Personaliserat innehåll var associerat med högre nivåer av popularitet och engagemang men studien kunde inte statistiskt säkerställa att detta skulle gälla alla studerade politiker vid alla tillfällen. Slutligen visade studien att svenska politiker alltmer använder privata aspekter när de kommunicerar politiska meddelanden på Instagram och att dessa hybrider, som vi har valt att namnge dem, genererar mer popularitet än politiska meddelanden som är strikt politiska. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Cöster, Angelica LU and Dahlberg, Victor
supervisor
organization
course
SKOK11 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
digital political communication, strategic communication, personalisation, media logic, social media logics, quantitative content analysis, Instagram, social media, hybrids, swedish politics, swedish politicians
language
English
id
8945953
date added to LUP
2018-06-12 09:30:13
date last changed
2018-06-12 09:30:13
@misc{8945953,
  abstract     = {{Personalisation is a concept which is based on the idea that focus is increasingly directed at the individual politician and his or her personal characteristics. Social media, such as Instagram, has revived the concept since the possibilities for personalised political communication have increased. This study aimed to examine if personalised communication among prominent Swedish politicians on Instagram has increased during the current parliamentary term (2014-2018), if personalised communication gains more traction than other types of content on Instagram and, finally, if politicians in-corporate private aspects when conveying political messages on Instagram. To achieve this aim a quantitative content analysis of prominent Swedish politicians’ Instagram posts (n=1641) was conducted. The findings show that the proportion of personalised posts was large but it had not increased during the current parliamentary term. Furthermore, personalised content was associated with higher levels of popularity and engagement but the study could not provide evidence for this being statistically significant for all politicians at all times. Moreover, the study found that Swedish politicians increasingly are incorporating private aspects when conveying political messages and that these hybrids, as we have named them, are receiving more popularity than political messages that are strictly political.}},
  author       = {{Cöster, Angelica and Dahlberg, Victor}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Personalisation on Instagram - A quantitative content analysis of prominent Swedish politicians’ Instagram posts}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}