Not so Intimate Instagram : Images of Swedish Political Party Leaders in the 2018 National Election Campaign

The visual components of political communication are closely related tothe ongoing personalization of politics. Not only do the media focus theirstories on candidates and leaders, but also the parties’own work with theelectoral campaigns and political propaganda have an increasing focus onthe individual candidates and leaders. This study focuses on how politicalparty leaders chose to use visual images in their self-presentation onInstagram during the 2018 general election in Sweden. This is donethrough a quantitative content analysis of party leaders’posts during thelast three weeks before Election Day.The results do not confirm an increasing level of personalization of politics.Party leaders were visually exposed in an innovative way, but still mainlywithin rather predictable campaign contexts. General social media standardshave been developed by political parties also on this platform. When applyingto these standards branding and long-term party strategy considerationsseem to be more important than possible short-term effects of exposing sur-prising personal and emotional characteristics of the party leader