‘Cute Politics’ : a case study of 2018 Taipei mayoral candidates Ko Wen-je and Ting Shouchung’s self-presentation on Instagram

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to study the self-images built on the social media Instagram by the re-elected Mayor Ko Wen-je and the second place Ting Shou-chung in 2018 Taipei mayoral election. Through conducting a qualitative content analysis as the research method and applying Goffman’s dramaturgy theory as the theoretical framework to analyse every Ko and Ting’s Instagram posting in the duration of the 6 months before the 2018 Taipei mayoral election, this thesis probes into Ko and Ting’s performance on the front-stage Instagram. The findings indicate that Ko’s public image on Instagram can be seen as an amusingly wilful political idol who goes beyond the two-party struggle and conscientiously devotes himself to prosper Taipei City; his inherent Internet celebrity nature allows him being himself on Instagram. On the other hand, by smiling frequently and providing high percentage of personal content, the image Ting showed on Instagram is utterly cordial and approachable. Nevertheless, he is unable to keep his image consistent in different occasions and social media thus lead to failure in campaigning on instagram. The research results confirm the importance of genuineness, which is stressed by Goffman that making the audience believe a performer’s honesty plays a vital role in self-presentation. Furthermore, the impact of adopting different campaign strategies is also directly reflected in the number of followers, Likes, and Comments. Based on the analysis of Ko and Ting’s Instagram account and the observations of Taiwanese political culture, this thesis went a step further to discuss that in the present age of overflowing fake news and rising self-media, Taiwan's unique Sajiao culture has become a means for political figures to catch up with the current universal trend towards politician celebritisation. The so-called Sajiao culture first appeared in Hsin-I Sydney Yueh’s work, Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation (2016). Sajiao is similar to Kawaii, which is the culture of cuteness in Japan. This thesis finds that this acting-cute phenomenon is particularly amplified on Instagram, because Taiwanese politicians fall over each other in their eagerness to act cute or make a fool of oneself to please the high proportion of young voters on this social networking site. In addition, in order to successfully become a political celebrity, this thesis argues that there are three principal points which political actors should keep in mind at all times, which are anti-elitist, the attributes of information carriers, and audience’s acceptability. All in all, the influence of politician celebritisation on democratic quality in Taiwan remains unclear.