Visual Culture, Personalization, and Politics: A Comparative Analysis of Political Leaders’ Instagram-Based Image-Making and Communication in Spain and India

Journal: International Journal of Strategic Communication (accepted for publication) 

Abstract: Through a hybrid visual quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study highlights the ways in which political leaders of two countries with vastly different cultural contexts – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – leverage the social, political, geographical, and cultural particularities of their countries to present themselves visually on Instagram and appeal to the public. The findings suggest that Sánchez and Modi have leveraged Instagram’s structural and functional properties to stage political performances infused with cultural markers, to spotlight specific facets of their identity attributes and character traits as well as to roll out strategic visual narratives conveying their political values and stances on political and policy issues of importance to their target audiences. 

In being able to showcase the cultural aspects of political leaders’ approach to visual political communication online, this paper argues that the future of political strategic communication will be region-specific, drawing out the finer cultural nuances while celebrating varied identities on global media platforms.