LE OCH VINKA POLITIKER! En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svenska EUparlamentarikers självpresentation på Instagram

Sammanfattning: The evolution of social media has changed the way people communicate, among other things the political communication. On social media political actors can communicate directly to their audience and circumvent the traditional media, and it is also platforms that have a more personal focus. This could be especially beneficial for female politicians since traditional media has a history of giving them a smaller amount of attention, but also a more sexist portrayal. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how the female and male Swedish members of the European parliament visually present themselves on Instagram, including a comparison by party affiliation. The method chosen to examine this is a quantitative content analysis, where a codebook was manufactured to analyse all the pictures posted by the 13 politicians on Instagram during the first three months of the new legislature after the election 2019. The study merges three lines of study: self-presentation, political personalization, and gender studies. The theory of self-presentation was first introduced by Goffman (1978) and describes how people acts as actors on a stage with the goal to leave a desirable impression with the audience. Political personalization is a theoretical concept which illustrates the bigger focus on individual politicians, and their personal life, at the expense of political parties and institutions. Lastly, the role congruity theory and the double-bind theory constitute the background of the gender aspect of this study, while the stereotype content model has been applied during the analysis of the result. The first question that the study was interested in answering was the following: How do female and male Swedish members of the European parliament present themselves individually in their visual self-presentation on Instagram? Firstly, both female and male politicians were visible in most of the pictures posted on their Instagram. Therefore, this communication can be seen as personalized if it is defined as a greater focus on the individual politician. However, if it is defined as a greater focus on the politician’s private life the communications cannot be seen as personalized, since the result show that it was foremost in a professional context that both female and male politicians were visible, similar results to earlies studies. On the other hand, politicians belonging to parties to the right was more likely to also appear in a private context. Overall, they presented themselves in a way which showed competence more than warmth, which applied to both women and men. Previous studies linked warmth to femininity and showing competence to masculinity, but based on this result, such gender-stereotypical behaviour and definition can be questioned. However, differences between the sexes were also visible, where women took more selfies than men, smiled more often but also wore more informal clothes. This means that the female politicians could be perceived as more accommodating than the male politicians who can be perceived as more authoritarian. Moreover, politicians belonging to parties to the left was more intimate in their self-presentation as they took more selfies and could also be perceived as more accommodating as they dressed more informally. In general, the Swedish members of the European parliament presented themselves in a way that made them seem more accommodating than authoritarian. This could help shorten the distance between the citizens and the politicians, which is especially long because of their international position. In contrast to this, they showed themselves mostly in an international setting, and thereby connected more to the international scene than the national one. This could lead to citizens perceiving the political processes in the European parliament as more distant and abstract, for example during elections to the European parliament. This applied for both men and women, and for the most part there where a similarity in their behaviour and how they chose to visually present themselves individually on Instagram. The second question that the study was interested in answering was the following: How do female and male Swedish members of the European parliament present themselves in relation to other people in their visual self-presentation on Instagram? Firstly, both female and male politicians were mainly visible with other people in their pictures than by themselves, and then mainly with other politicians which demonstrates competence. In contrast where fewer pictures where the politicians were seen with family members, and therefore showed less warmth. The idea that women would be more reserved than men in showing their private role, especially the role of parent/partner, does not seem to be true here since this applied for both women and men. However, the Christian Democrats stood out from the rest of the parties from the right by showing themselves together with family members, which earlies studies have also shown. By showing themselves more as part of a group than as dominating the picture, both female and male politicians could be perceived as more accommodating. Moreover, they showed closeness to other people in the picture. On the other hand, it was unusual for them to show proximity to citizens in pictures, which may have to do with their international job position. However, politicians belonging to parties to the left showed more closeness to citizens.