Is Instagram changing the agenda for political self-personalization? Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s professional and public private self on Instagram

Abstract

With the advent of digital media, politicians have increasingly turned to social media platforms to personalize themselves independently from the mass media. With a focus on three dimensions of self-personalization, that is, the public professional self, the public private self and the use of Instagram practices, this study explores the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s strategic visual self-personalization practices on Instagram during a two-year period following her election on 27 June 2019. Firstly, based on a visual content analysis, this study sheds light on how the prime minister presents her professional and private self and how she exemplifies a change in political self-personalization practices using the platform-specific features that Instagram has brought to political communication. Secondly, a quantitative data collection of user engagement suggests that private and softer political content especially succeed in engaging the followers.