Managing the Image: The Visual Communication Strategy of Right-Wing Populist Party Leaders on Instagram

In view of the electoral success of right-wing populist parties in Europe, the question of their communicative strategies and implied effects on voting behavior is of high relevance for political communication research. There is ample evidence that visuals play a significant role in crafting a political image, possibly boosting the right-wing populist success. But the parameters for visual image building have changed dramatically in the social media age. Social networks with a visual focus like Instagram allow for easy editing and dissemination of images and are increasingly used by politicians. Recent studies demonstrate that politicians strategically use Instagram to craft their political image, e.g. Canada’s Trudeau presenting himself as an everyday person. But to date there is a massive lack of cross-national studies and research on populist communication. As one of the first studies on political communication on Instagram to take an international comparative perspective, this study contributes to the expansion of research on the visual communication of right-wing populists and enhances our understanding of visual social media platforms as a means of political communication. Furthermore, the identification of central image types expands the catalogue of image types used in political (online) communication. Drawing on image management theory, right-wing populist and visual communication research, the study explores which political image right-wing populists craft on the network (RQ1), which types of visuals dominate (RQ2), and which elements known from right-wing populist verbal and textual communication can be identified in their visual communication (RQ3). Considering the scarce literature base, an exploratory approach was chosen to discover relevant variables and patterns in their visual communication. The approach is twofold: Firstly, a quantitative image type analysis was embedded into a comprehensive visual content analysis. Secondly, joint multiple correspondence analysis and correlation analysis were conducted to typify politicians by their Image management. To answer the research questions, the visual communication of European right-wing populist party leaders (n=9) on Instagram was analyzed. All Instagram posts published by the relevant politicians until December 2018 were collected (n=5462). A sample of 100 (if available) randomly selected images per actor were selected for analysis (n=824). Besides image type, variables include symbols, groups of people, self-portrayal techniques such as gaze and context, and visual commentary, e.g. shot length and camera angle. A pre-test yielded sufficient intercoder-reliability scores with an average agreement of .89 (Krippendorff’s Alpha), respectively .95 (Holsti’s method). Image type analysis revealed the heterogeneous character of the material: a total of 56 different types were identified. Correspondence analysis shows that two types of politicians stand out: Those who promote a statesmanlike attitude (e.g. shaking hands, commemorating, making speeches) and those who publish both private images and more radical material, e.g. anti-Islamic images. This distinction is also evident for the other variables. For instance, the statesmanlike type shows citizens or the military more often than average, appears more often in long shots and rarely makes eye contact with the viewer.