Abstract
This article explores dynamics of online image management and its impact on leadership in a context of digital permanent campaigning and celebrity politics in Canada. Recent studies have shown that images can play a critical role when members of the public are evaluating politicians. Specifically, voters are looking for specific qualities in political leaders, including honesty, intelligence, friendliness, sincerity, and trustworthiness, when making electoral decisions. Image management techniques can help create the impression that politicians possess these qualities. Heads of governments using social media to capture attention through impactful images or videos on an almost daily basis seems like a new norm. Specifically, this article takes interest in Justin Trudeau’s use of Instagram during the first year immediately following his election on October 19, 2015. Through a hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach, we examine how Trudeau and his party convey a specific image to voters in a context of permanent and increasingly personalized campaigning. We do so through an analysis of his Instagram feed focusing on different elements, including how he frames his governing style visually, how his personal life is used on his Instagram to support the Liberal Party of Canada’s values and ideas, and how celebrity culture codes are mobilized to discuss policy issues such as environment, youth, and technology. This analysis sheds light on the effects and implications of image management in Canada. More generally, it offers a much-needed look at image-based e-politicking and contributes to the academic literature on social media, permanent campaigning, as well as celebrity and politics in Canada.
He’s not just taking selfies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has had about one official photo-op for every weekday he has been in the business of governing. Considered the most visible Canadian leader since his father, Pierre, Trudeau has participated in at least 168 public events since swearing in his cabinet last November. He has become an international celebrity, even appearing on a comic book cover. Due to the explosion of social media and the retrenchment of the traditional press, politicians have more power than ever to communicate with voters directly. Meanwhile, the Internet has given still photos a pride of place in our media culture that they haven’t enjoyed since the rise of television. Mr. Trudeau has used that power, and that technology, to the hilt. He is the first prime minister of the Instagram age.
While Barack Obama partly transformed dynamics of digital politicking in the United States by introducing new strategies for political information dissemination, mobilizing, organizing, and fundraising (Bimber, 2014; Gibson, 2015), it can be safely argued that Donald J. Trump did the same for political messaging. The fiery businessman and former reality television-star-turned Republican-candidate who is now serving as 45th President of the United States is well known for turning to Twitter to push out more unconventional political messages—which often consist of snarky responses to or attacks of his critics—to his millions of followers. In many cases, his tweets have enabled him to shape the ways in which he is covered by individual journalists and media organizations, but also the broader debate about the political and policy agenda in the United States (Wells et al., 2016). While it has received little attention so far, an informal review of his personal Instagram account 1 shows that he has also turned heavily to this platform to engage in forms of political communication that can be confrontational and, in some cases, negative in nature.
In Canada, Justin Trudeau’s use of social media for politicking is diametrically opposed in tone, but quite similar when looking at the political communication strategy deployed. Trudeau, who was elected Prime Minister of Canada on October 19, 2015, is well known for his youth, approachability, and positive approach to politics. Much like Trump, his celebrity status is infused in all aspects of his political communication style. In particular, he is very active on Instagram in order to circumvent traditional media intermediaries and reach out directly to publics in Canada and internationally in highly personalized ways. These practices are gaining traction as they are part of a wave of new trends in visual political communication. They are important to study in order to understand how politicians communicate with different publics in a media environment where still and moving images are playing an increasingly important role, as it will be discussed in subsequent sections of this article.
This brings visuals even more to the forefront of formal political communication, mobilization, and organizing, especially in a context of constant—or permanent—campaigning where dynamics of electioneering, constituent communication, and governing are closely intertwined (Larsson, 2015; Marland, Esselment, & Giasson, 2017). As noted by Schill (2012, p. 118), “Visual symbols have long been a central component of political communication, and their importance has increased as the visual medium of television has become the dominant source of political information.” This dynamic has further intensified over the last two decades with Web 1.0 and, more recently, social media channels with a strong visual bent (e.g., SnapChat, Instagram) becoming important tools for political information acquisition, self-expression, and engagement (Filimonov, Russmann, & Svensson, 2016; Muñoz & Towner, 2017; Tedesco, 2004; Williams, 2017). In fact, images often supersede words, especially in an increasingly “cluttered media landscape competing for eyeballs,” as they have greater visibility and garner much more attention and scrutiny than in the past (Serazio, 2015, p. 1919; see also Thompson, 2005).
This article drills down on one of the 10 fundamentals of contemporary visual communication: image-making (Schill, 2012). 2 It does so through an hybrid qualitative and quantitative analysis of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of still and moving images on his personal Instagram account for public image and reputation management during the first year following his election on October 19, 2015. Specifically, it unpacks the ways in which and to what degree Trudeau leveraged Instagram’s distinct structural and functional properties to engage in practices of image-making emphasizing more conventional forms of communication on political and policy matters as well patterns of personalization and celebritization through a focus on his private life.
This research is of particular interest as visual content is becoming a central component of formal political players’ digital political communication, mobilization, and persuasion arsenal. Trudeau exemplifies this trend as he is considered to be the first federal Prime Minister of the “Instagram Era” in Canada (Andrew-Gee, 2016). In fact, he has been referred to as the “selfie Prime Minister” (Proudfoot, 2016) or the “king of the selfie” (Petrowski, 2016) in recent years. From a broader perspective, a growing number of heads of government are using highly personalized forms of visual political communication in a context of intensifying patterns of celebrity politics (e.g., Flicker, 2013; Krogstad & Storvik, 2010).
The Basics of Image-Making in Politics
Political image-making can be defined as the strategic development and use of “symbolic devices, which can be constructed with both visual and verbal messages, that provide a shorthand cue to audiences for the identification and enhancement of specific” attributes of an individual, an organization, a phenomenon, or a cause (Strachan & Kendall, 2004, p. 135; see also Bennett, 2016). Stemming from the steady professionalization of political communication over the last four decades (Lobinger & Brantner, 2015; Schill, 2012), this multidisciplinary concept borrows from commercial branding, marketing, public relations, polling, and advertising—all fields of activity affecting in varying ways contemporary politicking (Johnson, 2016; Marland, 2012, 2016). It should be noted that the logics of image-making rest on three broader rhetorical underpinnings: (1) the ethos, related to the image of the political leader; (2) the pathos, associated with mobilization of affect; and (3) the logos, connected to logic and cognitive strategies (Drolet, Lalancette, & Caty, 2015; Flanagan, 2014).
Rooted within “economic-based political marketing,” political image-making is especially salient in the current hyper-mediated political context as “modern democratic politics is a [non-stop] battle of competing images” in order to attract attention (Scammell, 2015, p. 9). The broader goal of political image-making is to generate, maintain, sharpen, and strengthen favorable perceptions among members of the public in order to affect their personal political attitudes and, by extension, decision-making in strategic ways (Strachan & Kendall, 2004). As Newman (1999, p. 92) observes, an image is often “created through the use of visual impressions that are communicated by the candidate’s physical presence, media appearances, experiences and record as that information is integrated into the minds of citizens.”
Bennett (2016) further unpacks political image-making by isolating four key mechanisms. First, it consists of the development of simple images targeting usually narrow slices of the public (“image shaping”). The simplicity of political images is instrumental as it makes them more likely to be “emotionally and intellectually accessible” to their target audience and, in some cases, collateral publics (Bennett, 2016, p. 109). It can also optimize their ability to penetrate and shape the traditional media coverage of politics and ultimately be more impactful, as evidenced by recent research on sound and image-bite politics (e.g., Esser, 2008; Grabe & Bucy, 2009; see also Marland, 2012). Second, in a context of increased competition between an expanding pool of political players with varying interests and objectives, image-making can help with the creation of images that are straightforward, coherent, and salient across all communication platforms through which they are circulated (“message salience”). By repeatedly emphasizing clear and specific points as well as benefiting from high visibility, political images can have greater and more consistent effects on audience members (Bennett, 2016).
Third, credibility can be viewed as a central facet of image-making (“message credibility”). The inclusion of indicators of credibility in political images can help establish or bolster the profile of an event, a cause, or a politician among target audiences. In some cases, this can influence audience members’ attitudes and actions (Rosenberg & McCafferty, 1987). Credibility can be demonstrated and reinforced in different ways depending on the structure and composition of the intended public, such as by embedding references to “logic, evidence, or authoritative endorsement” (Bennett, 2016, p. 111; see also Arbour, 2014). This echoes research findings on perceptions of political leaders’ image and personality traits as voting determinants (Bittner, 2011; Gidengil, Nevitte, Blais, Everitt, & Fournier, 2012; Johnston, 2002). Before casting a ballot, voters often take into account candidates’ personal qualities, including honesty, intelligence, friendliness, sincerity, trustworthiness, and leadership, which can be conveyed visually in different ways (King, 2002; Lobinger & Brantner, 2015). Finally, image-making consists of the construction and circulation of narratives—also known as visual rhetoric—designed to appeal to, mobilize, and persuade narrow publics (“message framing”). This can be done through highlighting—or downplaying—particular aspects of a cause, phenomenon, or individual in order to have emotional or intellectual resonance with audience members based on a variety of factors, including personal preferences, past experiences, or objectives (Bennett, 2016; Wischmann, 1987).
This article zeroes in on practices of image-making leveraged by established political actors—such as elected officials, political parties, and candidates—in their visual political communication operations in the digital mediascape. Following Nimmo’s (1976) pioneering work on political candidates’ self-presentation, two main theoretical approaches to image-making for formal political figures can be identified: one focusing on the projected image and the other on the factors influencing the public’s perception of these projected images (see also Scammell, 2015). This article takes interest in the former as politicians are devoting growing time, energy, and resources to framing themselves and, by extension, their message, favorably to the public eye (Arbour, 2014).
It should be noted that despite their centrality in the political communication process, visuals—including processes of image-making—and their effects on audiences are still understudied in Canada and, to some degree, in other national contexts (Barnhurst & Quinn, 2012; Filimonov et al., 2016; Powell, Boomgaarden, De Swert, & de Vreese, 2015; Schill, 2012). As the evolution of political communication and “journalism from textual to visual” is accelerating, especially with the popularization of user-generated social media as tools for image-based political messaging and engagement, the body of academic knowledge on the role of visuals in politicking needs to be expanded, diversified, and deepened (Marland, 2012, p. 215; see also Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017). This article fills part of this gap in the scholarly literature.
Unpacking Visual Political Communication in the Digital Mediascape
Over the last two decades, digital media—including social media—have grown to become integral components of the political communication, mobilization, and organizing landscape in several countries. According to Marland (2012, p. 217), these “changing circumstances” have contributed to the transformation of the ways in which and to what extent visuals are leveraged by formal political actors for image and reputation management as well as political messaging. Politicians have turned to e-communication tools to engage in a wide range of image-making activities, from projecting power, trustworthiness, and prestige to capturing and sharing aspects of their private life in an attempt to present a more humanized—and relatable—version of themselves (Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017; Page & Duffy, 2016). For example, the Obama administration released pictures taken by White House photographer Pete Souza on many occasions to reinforce specific perceptions of the President and his team among the public. On May 2, 2011, a photo of Obama and his team of advisers monitoring the Ben Laden raid from the White House Situation Room was widely circulated online and offline. 3 While the picture can be interpreted in different ways, some argue that it pushed three main themes: “a Black man as ‘protector in chief,’ women now at the center of power, and Obama getting ‘swagger’” (McFarlane, 2016, p. 9; see also Kennedy, 2012; Marland, 2012). Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, also leveraged visuals to shape how the public perceived him on the campaign trail as well as his Presidency, albeit much less through online media channels than his successor (Mayer, 2014; Verser & Wicks, 2006). As Schill (2012, p. 121) observes, he “perfected the art of the image bite—he had multiple former television producers on staff to mold his image and went to great lengths to stage visuals.”
Politicians in other national contexts have also turned to visuals to shape their public image, including Nicolas Sarkozy in France and Angela Merkel in Germany (e.g., Flicker, 2013; Krogstad & Storvik, 2010). On one hand, despite his “bourgeois, even aristocratic background,” Sarkozy turned to visuals to present himself as a “hardworking professional businessman” and project a specific brand of power and authority to the French population (Krogstad & Storvik, 2010, p. 26). Additionally, Sarkozy frequently shared insights into his private life on his Facebook account, such as pictures of Carla Bruni, a singer-songwriter who he married in 2008 (Yanoshevsky, 2010). Yanoshevsky (2010) points out that his use of Facebook for political communication fits the parameters of the celebritization of politics, as defined previously in this article. On the other hand, Flicker (2013) notes that by rejecting “any noticeable elements of feminization” and, by extension, neutralizing in her public image (e.g., handbags, jewelry), Angela Merkel limited in strategic ways the “disturbance effect of being a woman in the largely male field of politics and power” and clearly positioned herself as a “permanent member in the club of the worldwide most powerful politicians.” More research is needed in order to fully unpack how Merkel presented herself visually in the online mediascape, both during and outside elections (see Jungherr, 2012).
In the Canadian context, research on visuals and politics in the digital mediascape is still in its early stages. Some scholars have taken interest in uses of visuals for image management by the Harper government, which was in power from February 2006 to November 2015. It turned to a wide array of digital media platforms—including social media channels like Twitter 4 —to construct, maintain, and reinforce a positive public image of the prime minister in and out of elections (Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017). Specifically, Harper and his consultants dedicated time and effort to control how the prime minister and his government were framed visually to and perceived by the public. To some degree, it can be argued that they used these digital videos to bypass legacy media filters and address Canadians directly, much like Donald Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and since moving into the White House (Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017; Marland, 2012, 2014; Wells et al., 2016).
With the growing centrality of identity-centric social media platforms with a strong visual bent in the permanent political communication process, political leaders’ mass presentation of self has gained in importance (Ekman & Widholm, 2014; Muñoz & Towner, 2017). Following Goffman’s work (1959), it can be argued that visual image framing techniques emphasizing politicians’ individuality as well as elements of their personal life are permeating all aspects of their digital communication strategies and affecting dynamics of public impression creation and management (Marland, 2012). This is fueling the personalization of politics, which can be defined as the “process in which politicians become the main anchor of interpretation and evaluation in the political arena” (Balmas & Sheafer, 2016, p. 944). This is coupled with a decline in the visibility, prestige, and power of more institutionalized “political groupings such as political parties, parliaments and cabinets” (Balmas & Sheafer, 2016, p. 944).
The structure of the contemporary political mediascape has contributed to the hyperindividualization and personalization of political communication as well as the enhancement of other related trends (Lalancette, 2014; Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017; Russmann and Svensson, 2016). Among them include the celebritization of politics, which can be viewed as the blurring of the lines between identity, pop culture, and politics. This phenomenon is particularly well suited for the format and tone of social media–based political communication. In fact, it has contributed to the rise of digital politicking driven by celebrity politics-infused “performed connectivity.” In other words, politicking on social media is growingly performative in nature as it encompasses “the professional as well as the private sides of politicians’ daily lives,” which are packaged—visually in the case of this article—to attract and maintain the attention of members of the audience as well as establish a meaningful connection with them (Ekman & Widholm, 2014, p. 518). To some degree, it emphasizes more authentic forms of political communication that are highly interactive, informal, and spontaneous in nature, as evidenced in work by Manning et al. (2017; see also Graham, Jackson, & Broersma, 2016; McGregor, Lawrence, & Cardona, 2017). More broadly, this is contributing to the rise of modified public standards guiding the assessment of politicians’ performance in both private and more public settings as members of the public are in some cases considering variables highly personal in nature, such as gender, family, and personal preferences. In other words, politicians must be constant and coherent in their public and private lives, which are now mass mediated and constitute integral elements of their political appeal (McGregor et al., 2017; Van Zoonen, 2006).
While several scholars have taken interest in broader patterns of visual political communication in the social mediascape, much more research is needed. This article addresses this gap in the academic literature as it focuses on uses of a social media tool with a visual bent for public political image construction and management: the photo and video-sharing platform Instagram. While little data are available on levels of use of this platform for political communication by formal political players, recent surveys reveal it is becoming popular among the public. In the United States, 28% of the public reported using Instagram in January 2017. 5 Furthermore, 51% of Instagrammers in the United States indicated using this platform at least once daily in January 2017, while 26% did so once a week (Pew Research Center, 2017). In Canada, 16% of the public had at least one account on Instagram in January 2015, which they reported accessing an average of six times per week (Forum Research, 2015). From a broader perspective, there were 700 million active Instagrammers worldwide in April 2017. 6
Academic research on Instagram-based political communication is still at the exploratory stage. However, preliminary works has been the source of important insights (e.g., Larsson, 2017; Russmann and Svensson, 2017). Among them include Filimonov et al.’s (2016) study of Swedish political parties’ presence on Instagram during the 2014 elections. They examined how they leveraged the affordances of this platform for political campaigning, including sharing messages to a mass audience, mobilizing supporters, managing their public image, as well as complementing and expanding on other campaign materials. Much like other scholars who have conducted studies on social media–based political communication (e.g., Graham et al., 2016; Raynauld, Lalancette, & Tourigny-Kone, 2016), they concluded that “the platform was mainly used for broadcasting rather than for mobilization” (Filimonov et al., 2016, p. 8). They also found heavy forms of personalization in posts as many of them featured the “strong presence of top candidates” (Filimonov et al., 2016, p. 8). The latter finding is in line with trends discussed in previous sections of this article. Muñoz and Towner (2017) focused on dynamics of political marketing on Instagram during the 2016 U.S. presidential primary campaign. They examined how images and captions were used by candidates for framing themselves and their message to the public as well as generating different forms of engagement. Russmann and Svensson (2016) conducted a review of the methodological challenges and opportunities of studying visual political communication on Instagram. While identifying and describing some of the effects of Instagram’s structural and functional properties on politicking (e.g., information broadcasting, mobilization, privatization), they take interest in its impact of image management. They note that this platform can fuel dynamics of personalization and celebritization of politics, as mentioned previously in this article. They also offer methodological insights into the analysis of Instagram postings’ content. Finally, when analyzing dynamics of Instagramming by political parties during the 2014 Swedish national elections, Russmann and Svensson (2017) found that this digital media platform was not frequently used for interacting with their supports and members of the public. In fact, the few interactions that were observed by them showed little to no circulation of meaningful political information likely to enhance political deliberation.
Few scholars have explored how Instagram is used in the Canadian context—whether it is at the local, provincial, or federal level—for political communication, mobilization, and organizing. Building and expanding on existing work, this study unpacks Justin Trudeau’s use of Instagram to push out in a strategic way visual political content to his followers—and the population at large—in order to create, maintain, and strengthen a strategically crafted public image for himself, his message, and his actions as well as build support in a context of permanent campaign. As few studies have been done on Instagram-based political communication, this article also provides methodological insights on the analysis of political content on Instagram.
Justin Trudeau: A Distinct Celebrity Status
The consideration of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for this study is particularly important as his public profile distinguishes him sharply from other Canadian politicians. He is the son of Margaret Sinclair and Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979, and from 1980 to 1984. Born while his father was in office, he spent his early childhood living in the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada and was well known among the Canadian public (Messamore, 2016). After earning an undergraduate degree in Montreal and completing an education program at the University of British Columbia, he spent several years teaching in Vancouver. In 2002, he moved back to Montreal, and 5 years later, he secured the Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Papineau (in the Montreal metropolitan region) and went on to be elected as a member of parliament (MP) in 2008. In 2011, he was reelected for a second term and became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) on April 14, 2013. Despite some political experts and pollsters giving Justin Trudeau’s LPC little chances of defeating Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party during the 2015 federal election, he became Prime Minister of Canada on October 19, 2015, following the longest federal election campaign since the 19th century (78 days; Lachapelle & Masson, 2017).
Throughout the 2015 election campaign, Trudeau and his team put forth a positive approach to campaigning—essentially taking the “high road”—and shied away for the most part from attacking other candidates. Comparatively, the Harper campaign adopted a much more negative tone as it exploited “emotionally-charged cultural issues” on several occasions in an attempt to shock the public and sway their vote in its favor (Clarke, Gravelle, Scotto, Stewart, & Reifler, 2017, p. 701; see also Jeffrey, 2016). Following his election as prime minister, Trudeau announced his plans to reintroduce “sunny ways” 7 and positivity in Canadian politics. He also indicated wanting to roll back Harper-era measures designed to control in a highly centralized way communication by government ministries, agencies, and civil servants.
Methodology
As mentioned previously, this article unpacks dynamics of visual political communication on Justin Trudeau’s personal Instagram account during the year immediately following his election, namely, from the moment he was elected prime minister. In order to do so, all posts that appeared on his personal Instagram feed 8 between October 19, 2015, and October 19, 2016, were archived manually by research assistants with the help of smartphones during the months of September and October 2016. Screenshots of every post were made, which included all textual and visual digital content (e.g., pictures, captions). Multiple screenshots were made when needed in order to capture the entirety of posts when too long to fit on a single smartphone screen. A total of 145 unique posts were archived for the time period considered for this study. Comments on the pictures by Internet users were not recorded for this study. It should be noted that Instagram “stories” shared by Trudeau were not considered for this study due to technical limitations of the archiving process as well as the fact that the “stories” function was launched by Instagram on August 2, 2016.
Building on recent research on Instagram-based political communication and branding (e.g., Filimonov et al., 2016; Muñoz & Towner, 2017; Russmann & Svensson, 2016), a detailed coding scheme taking into account dynamics of visual political communication—including image-making as well as image management—was developed following an inductive approach. The coding approach takes into account five dimensions of Instagram-based political communication: (1) the structure and composition of Instagram still and moving images (e.g., people featured in the image, uses of filters); (2) the structure and content of Instagram captions (e.g., uses of tagging mechanisms [@], hashtags, emojis); (3) the political and policy issues referred to in Instagram updates (e.g., relations with government ministries and agencies); (4) the stages of performance depicted based on typologies developed by Corner and Pels (2003) and Van Zoonen (2006), for example, media and public, political, private; and (5) the mise-en-scene of Instagram still and moving images (e.g., aesthetics, physical location, presence of symbols).
The initial coding approach was developed through the consideration of recent academic literature and tested on a small sample of posts that appeared on his personal Instagram feed during the first year following his election. Coding rubrics were then added, adjusted, or subtracted in order to describe and analyze adequately the complex nature of Instagram-based visual political communication. A total of 125 variables were considered for each still and moving images in the corpus constituted for this study. All variables considered for this study focused on the structure and composition of the Instagram pictures shared by Trudeau as well as the accompanying captions. In this sense, the analysis focused on visual on textual content. In order to prevent the subjective interpretation of Instagram posts’ content by coders, all indicators for the 125 variables considered in the context of this study were mutually exclusive. 9 Coding was completed by two graduate research assistants over the course of 2 weeks in June 2017. To ensure high levels of intercoder agreement, meetings with the authors of this article were held throughout coding period.
Findings
Overview of the Data
As indicated by Trudeau’s patterns of Instagramming during the year immediately following his election, his personal Instagram account served as an important channel for constituent outreach. While sharing only three posts during every month of the last quarter of 2015, Trudeau’s use of Instagram intensified significantly after January 2016 (see Figure 1). He updated his account a minimum of 10 times each month and even shared 25 posts in March 2016 and 22 posts in June 2016. He also posted more than once daily on several occasions. While sharing updates only once per day during 89 days, he posted twice per day on 15 days, three times on 6 days, and 4 times on 2 days.
Monthly volume of posts on Trudeau’s personal Instagram account (October 15, 2015, to October 16, 2016).
An informal review of Trudeau’s personal Instagram feed before October 15, 2015, and after October 15, 2016, reveals noteworthy trends. On one hand, his use of Instagram was much more intense throughout the federal election campaign as he was reaching out to supporters to mobilize them and secure their support ahead of Election Day. To a lesser degree, he also appealed to the larger public, both through his Instagram feed as well as through the traditional media coverage it received, to win their vote. On the other hand, his use of Instagram has intensified since October 15, 2016, as he is turning to this platform to reach out to members of the public and provide them with updates on his personal and political activities as well as policy issues. To some degree, it can be argued that he is positioning himself strategically ahead of the next federal elections.
Trudeau’s patterns of Instagramming during the time period considered for this study show that he leveraged all structural and technical properties of this social media channel (see Table 1). Most of them consisted of a single image with a caption of varying length. Others include short videos with a caption of varying length, multiples images with a caption of varying length, re-shared posts, as well as a single image without a caption. As Canada is recognized by law as bilingual (French and English), all of Trudeau’s posts comprising a caption were bilingual, as shown in Figure 2, as he sought to reach out to all Canadians.
Characterization of the Content of Instagram Posts.
Instagram post on March 4, 2016, at 11h59am.
If Images Could Speak
All images that appeared on Trudeau’s personal Instagram considered for this study were taken by the official photographer of the prime minister, 10 Adam Scotti. The pictures were designed to showcase Trudeau’s expertise, skills, accomplishments, and talent in a positive manner and make his work as prime minister appear important, dynamic, and enjoyable despite its seriousness and rigorousness. The majority of images projected an aura of authenticity, 11 which can be defined as a dynamic of political communication straying away from more “staid, formulaic and on-message pronouncements” that are highly institutionalized in nature and embracing an approach rooted in the reduction of the distance between elected officials and “those they (claim to) represent” (Graham, Jackson, & Broersma, 2017, p. 5). Authenticity in digital constituent communication can also be viewed as how well elected official highlight and bridge the “political, public and private spheres in their social networking” (Loader, Vromen, & Xenos, 2016, p. 415). As noted by Arbour (2014), projecting an authentic ethos can be important in politics as it can help secure support in a context of permanent campaigning.
Trudeau’s long-standing personal brand, which is anchored in his youth, athleticism, open-mindedness, interpersonal skills, and support of feminist causes (Marland, 2016; Marland, Lewis et al., 2017) are highlighted in different ways on his Instagram feed. It is reinforced strategically through a process of selection and editing of pictures before being shared on Instagram. As noted by Andrew-Gee (2016), Trudeau has telegenic features, which is especially helpful for visual political communication, and appears at ease in front of the camera. Comparatively, Stephen Harper’s personal brand, which is marked by rigidity and withdrawnness, explains the multiple attempts to humanize and personalize his public image over the years 12 (Marland, 2014).
Pictures shared on Trudeau’s personal Instagram feed featured various types of photographic shots, including mid-shots, wide shots, bottom-view shots, and top-view shots. The overwhelming majority of posts with at least one picture (98%) featured color pictures, while black-and-white pictures were posted only three times (2% of posts). These monochrome shots marked key moments of his tenure as prime minister: his first 100 days in office and his observance of a minute of silence following the terrorist attack in a nightclub in Orlando on June 13, 2016. As Brader (2006) observes, uses of color schemes can add layers of meaning and purpose to an image. For instance, black-and-white photos can stimulate audience members by heightening their awareness and generating interest. Conversely, color pictures can influence in strategic ways how the public can perceive and understand the image and its message.
A large portion of pictures on Trudeau’s Instagram account featured interior settings (64.8% of posts). He was shown working in his office on Parliament Hill, participating in House of Commons activities, or attending meetings with Members of Parliament (MPs) or citizens in different locations (e.g., schools, offices, restaurants). He was also shown in exterior settings (29% of posts), such as locations in front of the Canadian Parliament, memorial sites during commemorations, offices of public and private organizations, streets in the context of demonstrations, or the wilderness (e.g., lakes, national park; see Figure 3). 13
Instagram post on June 18, 2016, at 11h50am.
It should also be noted that close to half of Instagram posts comprised a photo with some kind of patriotic symbol. The most popular was the Canadian flag. Other symbols embedded in Instagram updates include the red poppy symbolizing the end of the First World War and symbols shared in the context of official visits like seals of departments or official attire. Finally, the Canadian Parliament—an important symbol representing the government and its power—was seldom represented (see Figure 5). In sum, symbols helped reinforce Trudeau’s stature and prestige as prime minister.
Instagram post on March 10, 2016, at 8h48pm.
Instagram post on July 21, 2016, at 11h06am.
A closer analysis of Trudeau’ Instagramming practices reveals that he was featured strategically in most posts. He was shown interacting with individuals with varying sociodemographic backgrounds, affiliations, political interests, and objectives (see Table 2). Despite his celebrity status, only a small portion of posts (3.4%) showed Trudeau with figures of the worlds of politics, media, show business, and sports. He was mostly shown interacting with members of his own party, elected officials from other countries, international actors serving nonelected roles (see Figure 4), leaders of Indigenous communities from across Canada (see Figure 2), members of the Canadian armed forces, as well as provincial prime ministers and ministers. Pictures usually showed him with one person and roughly as many females as males. Many of them also depicted them in the presence of provincial, national, and international figures of political, social, and military authority (see Figures 4 and 11). In other words, this can be seen as a way for Trudeau to project and reinforce in a consistent manner his credibility and trustworthiness as political leader. These practices are in line with the typology of image-making developed by Bennett (2016), as discussed in this article.
Individuals and Organizations Interacting With Prime Minister Trudeau in Pictures Shared in Instagram Posts.
Many pictures that appeared on Trudeau’s personal Instagram feed also showed him with nonpolitical actors, including members of cultural communities, 14 children aged between 3 and 12 years of age, workers (when specified in the caption), teenagers, babies, and friends. 15 Ordinary citizens are present in the background of 20% of pictures, usually in large groups or crowds.
Overall, the data suggest that his Instagram activities focused on his work in the political sphere. Much less attention was given to his personal life (Corner & Pels, 2003). Contrary to our expectations, his spouse Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau and his children were not often featured in pictures (respectively 16.6% and 2.1%). When they were, it was usually in those referring to his official duties as prime minister. His mother appeared in only one picture (see Figure 6). 16 These images contributed to the creation of a professional and political ethos. In this sense, his Instagram feed promoted his work as Prime Minister of Canada and, by extension, bolstered his image and credibility as prime minister through a clear and constant emphasis on his official duties.
Instagram post on March 4, 2016, at 8h04am.
Respecting Social Media Practices
A closer analysis of the structure and content of captions accompanying the pics on Trudeau’s Instagram updates reveals that hyperlinked textual mechanisms enabling the tagging of at least one Instagram user (@user) were used on many occasions to tag individuals, networks, organizations, or institutions with a presence on Instagram (e.g., @canadasoccer [Canada Soccer], @usembassyottawa [U.S. embassy in Ottawa], @Microsoftcanada [Microsoft Canada], and @unitednations [United Nations]). Much like on Twitter, this tagging mechanism can serve different functions, including identifying a specific user for social and content interaction purpose. In the case of Trudeau’s posts, it was used to contextualize his Instagram posts, namely, by identifying an event or physical location, by naming an organization, or by identifying a group or individual featured in the picture.
Trudeau embedded a large number of hashtags in his posts (see Table 3). These hyperlinked mechanisms can fulfill different functions, including associating a post to a specific category linked to a theme, an event, or other matters, joining a broader decentralized conversation, or sharing or amplifying opinions or emotions in often sarcastic or humorous ways (Raynauld et al., 2016; Small, 2011). The hashtags that were included in Trudeau’s posts include #100jours/#first100 (first hundred days in office), #CanadaDay (Canada Day on July 1), and #NALS2016 (2016 North American Leader Summit). Additionally, the caption of Trudeau’s featured emojis, such as the Canadian flag emoji (
) and the Earth emoji ( 
). In some cases, Trudeau added in captions emojis of the flag of the country of a leader with whom he was interacting or of a country he was visiting. All emojis used by Trudeau served a specific communication purpose and can be defined as serious in nature (smiley faces [☺] or other emojis like those of animals or food did not appear in Trudeau’s posts). The heavy use of emojis is not out of the ordinary as a report by Instagram has shown that these visual symbols are now a frequent occurrence in captions and in pictures shared by Instagram users (Instagram Engineering, 2015).
Characterization of the Content of Captions.
Developing an Engaging Narrative
Another facet of the analysis deals with the types of enunciation used in captions of Trudeau’s Instagram posts. As shown in Table 4, a promotional tone was used in slightly more than half of French and English-language posts during the time period considered for this study. On February 3, 2016, he shared an Instagram update with the following caption: “Caucus meetings are every Wednesday. We leave our phones at the door and talk to each other, uninterrupted. /// Les réunions du caucus ont lieu tous les mercredis. Nous laissons nos téléphones à l’entrée et nous parlons les uns avec les autres, sans être interrompus.” This can be interpreted as Trudeau showing his dedication to political and policy issues, as technology can be seen as a potential source of interruption and, to some extent, distraction. Again, this fosters an image and narrative emphasizing credibility and responsibility, especially as Trudeau is known to be younger and technologically savvy. Moreover, this offers a balance between a more logical (logos) approach to issues as well as sensibility (pathos) to the importance of the issues discussed in these meetings. In a post on February 18, 2016, the caption reads: “Tonight we mark 40 years of diplomatic relations with the EU. Thank you Ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx. Ce soir nous soulignons 40 ans de relations diplomatiques avec l’UE. Merci à l’Ambassadrice Marie-Anne Coninsx.” This is in line with previous observations. Trudeau leveraged Instagram’s structural and functional properties to shed light on governing-related activities (e.g., policymaking; Parliament-related work; meetings with local, provincial, and federal elected officials; international relations–related activities; constituent engagement activities). It enabled him to prop up his political activities and build his public image of a prime minister who is hard at work and dedicated to his duties. This is not surprising considering that this study focuses on posts during the first year following his election.
Type of Enunciation Featured in Captions.
Note. Totals can be higher than 100% as several types of enunciations can be found in a single Instagram post.
In 32.4% of posts, Trudeau adopted a more collective tone that is more inclusive in nature (“We” in English and “Nous” in French). On June 18, 2016, Trudeau shared a picture of him and his wife and kids in a rowboat on a lake among other rowboats. The English-language caption mentioned that “this week @RougePark became Canada’s first urban national park. Today we celebrated! 7 million Canadian live within an hour’s drive of the park. For more—check out parkscanada.gc.ca/rouge #PaddleTheRouge.” In doing so, Trudeau adopted an inclusive approach to governing and established a sharp contrast with the approach of his predecessor, Stephen Harper. It should be noted that Trudeau and his team sometimes turned to captions featuring a mixture of enunciations, such as promotional and collective. This could foster a balanced political ethos where more logical (logos) and emotional (pathos) rhetorical and communication approaches can interact with each other.
As indicated in Table 4, some captions featured a more personal enunciation (with the use of the “I” in English and the “Je” in French). On October 18, 2016, an Instagram update with the following caption was posted: “Touching base with @HarjitSajjan today on the Hill—thanks for the meeting. Je fais le point avec Harjiit Sajjan aujourd’hui sur la Colline—merci pour la rencontre.” This post includes a picture of Trudeau in his Parliament Hill office wearing a white shirt and tie and listening attentively to the defense minister talking while an unknown man is taking notes in the background (see Figure 11). A large Canadian flag can be seen in the background. The caption coupled with the structure and composition of the picture provide a perspective on leadership that is highly personal in nature. It reinforces personal power as it makes no reference of his team or his duties. In similar ways, an Instagram post announcing a new child care benefit program on July 21, 2016, comprised a picture of Trudeau with a small child in a more informal—and personal—setting. Again, Trudeau appears as an approachable and down-to-earth leader. His interactions with children, families, and other individuals and organizations show compassion and empathy. In other words, the visual representation of these exchanges can foster a symbolic linkage with individual voters (Grabe & Bucy, 2009) and help build an approachable political and personal ethos with citizens.
While the majority of posts do not showed Trudeau in more intimate settings such as his house or engaging in personal activities, the structure and composition of images as well as the type of enunciation in captions still convey a highly personal feel. In this sense, Trudeau and his team are able to strike the celebrity–emotional (pathos) balance and provide glimpses of his personal life. As his spouse and children are present at official events featured in pictures, it is not possible to conclude that the personal sphere is used for intimization. Dynamics of personalization in Instagram posts are strictly related to the political realm, mostly in official settings. However, he shared posts showing him in more personal settings on a few occasions. For example, an October 2015 post comprised a picture of Halloween celebrations with his family. In that picture, he was wearing a Han Solo disguise, while his spouse Sophie Grégoire was dressed as Princess Leia and their children were wearing other disguises. This enabled Trudeau to humanize himself through the portrayal of family activities, which appear joyful and, to some degree, similar to those of average Canadian families (see Figure 7).
Instagram post on October 31, 2015, at 7h31pm.
A Political Story: Function of and Themes Discussed in Instagram Posts
The Instagram posts considered in this study focused on a large number of areas of government activity and other themes (see Table 5) as well as fulfilled various functions. First, a large number of posts provided official announcements on policy issues relating to different government ministries and agencies. Not surprisingly, the most popular policy issues referred to by Trudeau on Instagram were linked to employment and social development, followed by the economy. Other policy issues referred to include in no particular order the youth, health, the environment, financial issues, sports, heritage, public safety, as well as transport and infrastructure. 17 These Instagram publications looked planned as they highlighted official governmental business strategically. For example, Trudeau was shown in front of metro cars announcing major public transit investments in Montreal on June 16, 2016 (see Figure 8). This practice can be seen as serving an information broadcasting role as described by Filimonov et al. (2016). It could also help the prime minister appear reliable and trustworthy as he is keeping his promises since being elected prime minister. As noted previously in this article, other posts discussed more political or personal matters.
Areas of Government Activity Referred to in Instagram Posts.
Note: Reccurent ou most popular areas of government activity discussed in Instagram Posts (explicitely cited)
Instagram post on June 16, 2016, at 11h31am.
The second category of posts encompasses official statements by the prime minister in reaction to current or unforeseeable events, such as the terrorist attacks at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris (France) and the Pulse Night Club in Orlando (Florida), or natural disasters such as the Fort McMurray fires in the province of Alberta, Canada. Specifically, some posts included images of Trudeau offering condolences and best wishes to people affected by challenging events or situations. These pictures and accompanying captions showed Trudeau’s compassion and solidarity with Canadians citizens and international communities. Even if posted in reaction to events, these updates appear unscripted and spontaneous. Of interest is a picture of Trudeau in Fort McMurray to comfort people affected by forest fires. In this case, the personal qualities showcased include compassion, empathy, and supportiveness. Trudeau appears down-to-earth and capable of expressing sadness when confronted by terrible situations. In other words, he projects a political ethos of a politician dealing with grace with more emotional (pathos) events.
The third category of posts comprises public relations/feel good events, such as Trudeau attending the gay pride parade in Toronto (see Figure 9), visiting the Toronto zoo, naming baby pandas (see Figure 10), or attending activities related to the celebrations of Canada’s 150th anniversary. This category also includes updates providing insights on meetings with prominent international figures, such as Prince Harry during his visit in Canada in May 2016, the internationally renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking in April 2016, or other international organizations and personalities. These interactions can be viewed as a form of celebrity politics as he is shown engaging with prominent cultural, media, and political figures. This can generate a positive effect for the prime minister if voters are supportive of these celebrities (Marland & Lalancette, 2014). Also included in this category are posts with pictures showing Trudeau offering his best wishes during different holidays, including Easter, Father’s Day, Canada Day, and the Saint Jean (Quebec holiday; see Figure 11). These wishes, which are offered by Trudeau in both official languages, are usually conveyed through short videos (30 seconds or shorter) and appear sincere. This can help bolster the public’s impression of Trudeau being friendly and close to voters. These events all play on positive pathos. By dealing with them, Trudeau shows a political ethos based on sensitivity, inclusiveness and, at the same time, a down-to-earth character.
Instagram post on July 3, 2016, at 1h59pm.
Instagram post on June 24, 2016 at 5h10pm.
Instagram post on March 7, 2016 at 8h51am.
Some Instagram posts showed Trudeau taking part in festivities across Canada, including the Calgary Stampede as well cultural and religious events (e.g., sake ceremony, meal with the Sikh people, Ramadan with members of Muslim communities). In these pictures, he sports a casual look, which usually consists of a shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a tie. He is often interacting with people by shaking their hands, giving them high fives, or posing for pictures. As these pictures show Trudeau enjoying himself, they convey a sense of authenticity likely to resonate with the public. His attire, which is similar to how an “ordinary Canadian” would dress, makes him seem approachable and close to the public. In this sense, this helps foster an approachable ethos. Similar strategies have been used by George W. Bush to project the image of a common man throughout his time in the White House (Mayer, 2014).
When attending more informal meetings, Trudeau is wearing suits when needed and casual clothes (Figure 12). Casual clothes could convey an image of an everyday person and helps him appear more approachable (Grabe & Bucy, 2009). In sum, he adapts himself to the context, which helps him project the image of a person that is polite, well-behaved, and civil (Grabe & Bucy, 2009).
Instagram post on October 18, 2016, at 12h15pm.
As mentioned previously, Trudeau’s personal Instagram feed focuses on the political sphere while giving much less importance to the media and personal spheres (Corner & Pels, 2003; Van Zoonen, 2006). His posts tend to be centered on his work in the Parliament setting, official international trips, in the Prime Minister’s Office, as well as while attending events and meetings in the context of his official duties. In other words, Trudeau does not use Instagram extensively to personalize himself through references to his private life and other personal matters. These observations are in line with previous findings of this study.
Discussion
This article unpacks dynamics of visual political communication in the social mediascape in the context of constituent communication. Specifically, it explores the ways in which and to what degree Justin Trudeau leveraged the affordances of the social media platform Instagram for political image-making and management throughout the year immediately following his election as Prime Minister of Canada (October 19, 2015, to October 19, 2016). It also takes interest in the effects of this approach on leadership in a context of digital permanent campaigning and celebrity politics.
As indicated previously, scholarly research has shown that visuals can play a critical role in how members of the public perceive, understand, and evaluate politicians, their messaging, as well as their actions. This is especially the case when it comes to political communication on social media platforms with a strong visual bent. By taking interest in how Justin Trudeau documented visually the year immediately following his election as Prime Minister of Canada on his personal Instagram account, this article identifies and analyzes techniques that were leveraged for image-making and management in order to attain a wide range of information dispersion, attitude formation, and persuasion objectives. The hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach allows for the in-depth examination of Trudeau’s image that was built visually and circulated strategically to voters in a context of nonstop and increasingly personalized campaigning. Despite its mostly descriptive findings, the article—which constituted the first phase of a much broader project—sheds light on Trudeau’s use of Instagram to present himself through a mostly political lens. Despite popular beliefs that his reinforced in the traditional media coverage of his tenure as prime minister (e.g., Petrowski, 2016; Proudfoot, 2016), much less importance was given to his private life in his Instagram feed. In line with practices of other politicians internationally (e.g., Obama, Harper, Sarkozy, Merkel), Trudeau and his team embraced fully Instagram’s visual and textual political communication potential to create, maintain, and, in some cases, sharpen a positive image that is coherent with Trudeau’s desire to reintroduce “sunny ways” in Canadian politics. Trudeau’s visual rhetoric and storytelling emphasized the image (ethos) of a youthful, well-groomed, and positive person at ease in every personal or public situation. From Halloween trick-or-treating to marching in a gay pride parade, meeting international social and political figures, announcing government investments, or offering condolences to people affected by terrorist attacks or natural disasters, he conveyed an optimistic message about Canada and the way in which it is governed. As images can often be more impactful than words, pictures of Trudeau taking part a gay pride parade or attending cultural or religious celebrations could have more effects on citizens than more traditional, text-based political messaging and strengthen Trudeau’s image of a politician redefining Canadian politics. The shareability of these images can also help boost his popularity.
Trudeau’s personal Instagram feed also reinforced his more personal image, which is one of a happily married man and a loving husband and father. It does so through the presence of pictures featuring his family accompanying him in different events in Canada and internationally. This can be seen as giving an impression of normality as his public image fits the Canadian heteronormative norm. By emphasizing these aspects, it reinforced an emotional (pathos) and intellectual (logos) connection with citizens in Canada (Bennett, 2016; Lalancette & Tourigny-Koné, 2017; Wischmann, 1987). Moreover, the emphasis on a positive political image allowed Trudeau to reinforce his credibility and likeability, both as a politician and as an individual. Through the combination of images and captions, Trudeau conveyed traits that can be appealing to a large public, including honesty, sincerity, trustworthiness, friendliness, and leadership. As indicated previously, these qualities can play a pivotal role when voters are assessing politicians ahead of or during election campaigns (King, 2002; Lobinger & Brantner, 2015). In the current media and political context, Instagram could redefine how many members of the public evaluate politicians. Indeed, their assessment of their performance is increasingly guided by modified public standards, which can be strongly influenced by visual considerations.
While Trudeau is well known for the heavy traditional media coverage of his selfies with citizens as well as his celebrity status that was built throughout his personal and political life, his Instagram activity offers another look at the politician. It reinforces the image of a politician that is polished and professional. It shows him attending serious meetings as well as participating in more informal public relations events. In other words, Instagram is helping Trudeau build and reinforce his legitimacy and credibility as international spokesperson. Trudeau’s Instagram feed is used mostly for mass broadcasting purposes as well as to offer and reinforce a positive image of the politician and his government. As noted previously, he favors the “high road” and did not turns to negative politicking. Comparatively, current and former elected officials in Canada and internationally have utilized Instagram and other social media channels for political attacks and other more negative forms of political communication in recent years, including Stephen Harper and his newly elected-successor Andrew Scheer in Canada and Donald Trump in the United States.
The Liberal Party of Canada values of inclusiveness, multiculturalism, economic growth are also transcending the visual content as well as captions of his Instagram posts and are complementing his “sunny ways” inspired approach to politicking. This fosters a positive use of pathos rhetorical strategies. As noted by Lalancette and Tourigny-Koné (2017), this was also the case for former Prime Minister Harper who used similar tactics in the digital visual political content he shares on his social media platforms. In his case, values put forth included law and order, military investments, and business-friendly economic policies. The pathos was used differently as more emphasis was given to logical (logos) arguments. It could be worth investigating how political parties and, more broadly, political institutions affect politicians’ behavior on social media as well as how it shapes their visual and traditional rhetoric.
This analysis sheds light on the effects and implications of social media–based political image-making and management in Canada. More generally, it offers a much needed analysis of visual e-politicking and contributes to the academic literature on permanent campaigning on social media, as well as celebrity politics in Canada. Much more analysis of the Instagram sample considered for this study will be conducted as some of the variables taken into account during the analysis are not discussed in this article. Specifically, questions relating to how images are used in relation to the political context will be explored. Were they used as information subsidies or to circumvent possible controversial news events? How are these image used to control the traditional media coverage? Are they reused by traditional media as such or are they questioned and used differently? Some critics on Trudeau’s uses of image-making for political communication and public relations have emerged since his election as prime minister (see Kassam, 2017). Mainstream media organizations and journalists are following his Instagram feed, covering it as news and retransmitting these images in various ways.
Later phases of this study will explore the following questions: What are the potential positive and negative impacts of using this platform? Is Instagram helping to get younger segments of the public interested in politics? Does it help foster a positive image of the prime minister? As shown in recent surveys, Millennials and post-Millennials are relying increasingly on social media not only for acquiring political information but also for sharing it to friends and members of their social networks (e.g., Gottfried, Barthel, Shearer, & Mitchell, 2016). In this sense, the images and captions on the prime minister’s Instagram account can travel quickly and to a large audience via these communication channels. This has redefined the ways in which politicians can reach out to and interact with audiences. Another future goal of this project is to examine how social media platforms interact with each other in the context of political image-making. Do they convey the same message or are they used for targeting micro publics? Furthermore, this study will examine the evolution of Trudeau’s Instagram practices over the course of his tenure as prime minister. While he shared few posts during the first months following his election, he became more active over the following months. It will be of interest to examine how he will be using this platform ahead of the next Canadian federal election. Since only few studies have explored dynamics of political communication on Instagram in recent years, more research should be conducted to better understand the power of political visual rhetoric and narratives using social media platforms with a strong visual bent.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the invaluable support of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières as well as Emerson College, particularly the Department of Communication Studies, for providing logistical and financial assistance at different stages of the project. A special mention goes to Dr. Alex Marland from Memorial University for providing the authors with indispensable feedback on an earlier version of this article. Finally, the authors would like to recognize the outstanding work of research assistants Carol-Ann Rouillard, Samantha Durand, and Georgios Tzoumakas.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We thank Emerson College, particularly the Department of Communication Studies, for providing logistical and financial assistance at different stages of the project. We also thank Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières for a research grant that allowed for the analysis of the Instagram posts.