Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van Der Bellen's Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Liebhart, Karin; Bernhardt, Petra

Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van Der Bellen's Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Liebhart, Karin; Bernhardt, Petra

www.ssoar.info Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van der Bellen's Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Liebhart, Karin; Bernhardt, Petra Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Liebhart, K., & Bernhardt, P. (2017). Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van der Bellen's Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign. Media and Communication, 5(4), 15-25. https://doi.org/10.17645/ mac.v5i4.1062 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur This document is made available under a CC BY Licence Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden (Attribution). For more Information see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2017, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 15–25 DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1062 Article Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van der Bellen’s Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Karin Liebhart * and Petra Bernhardt Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria; E-Mails: [email protected] (K.L.), [email protected] (P.B.) * Corresponding author Submitted: 31 May 2017 | Accepted: 27 October 2017 | Published: 21 December 2017 Abstract This article addresses the strategic use of Instagram in election campaigns for the office of the Austrian Federal President in 2016. Based on a comprehensive visual analysis of 504 Instagram posts from Green-backed but independent presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, who resulted as winner after almost one year of campaigning, this contribution recon- structs key aspects of digital storytelling on Instagram. By identifying relevant image types central to the self-representation of the candidate, this article shows how a politician makes use of a digital platform in order to project and manage desired images. The salience of image types allows for the reconstruction of underlying visual strategies: (1) the highlighting of the candidate’s biography (biographical strategy), (2) the presentation of his campaign team (team strategy), and (3) the pre- sentation of the candidate as a legitimate office holder (incumbent strategy). The article thus sheds light on visual aspects of digital storytelling as relevant factor of political communication. Keywords digital platforms; Instagram; political communication; presidential election campaigns; storytelling; visual imagery; visual strategies Issue This article is part of the issue “Visual Communication in the Age of Social Media: Conceptual, Theoretical and Method- ological Challenges”, edited by Uta Russmann (FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management & Com- munication, Austria) and Jakob Svensson (Malmö University, Sweden). © 2017 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction: Digital Storytelling in Political diversification of target group messages. Especially the Campaigns—The Example of Austria campaigns of the runoff candidates Norbert Hofer (Aus- trian Freedom Party/FPÖ) and Alexander Van der Bellen The inauguration of Alexander Van der Bellen as Austria’s (Green-backed but independent) made use of various dig- ninth Federal President on 26 January 2017 was preceded ital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to by an emotional election campaign. This campaign lasted directly address target groups, bypass traditional media, almost a year and can be considered extraordinary—not or set the agenda for media coverage. only due to organizational circumstances like the annul- This article uses the diversification of digital plat- ment of the runoff by the Austrian Constitutional Court forms in the 2016 election campaigns for the office of on 1 July 2016 and the postponement of the runoff the Austrian Federal President as a starting point for an vote from 2 October to 4 December 2016, but also due analysis of Alexander Van der Bellen’s Instagram account to increased modernization and professionalization pro- as campaign channel. One has to consider the limits of cesses regarding campaign communication. This included such an approach in that it may fail “to recognize the di- an extension of campaign channels and, along with it, a verse, fragmented, and complex modern media environ- Media and Communication, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 15–25 15 ment, of which a single media platform is only a small tion (or concentrated visibility)” (Balmas & Sheafer, 2016, part” (Bode & Vraga, 2017, p. 1). However, focusing on p. 945), a shift from topic-based to personality-based a single digital platform can be “enormously useful, in campaigns also affects the visual presentation of politics that it gives us a better understanding of the use, the con- (Keim & Rosenthal, 2016, p. 313; Van Aelst et al., 2011). tent, and the effects of specific media platforms” (Bode Furthermore, the increasing influence of non-political & Vraga, 2017, p. 1). topics tends to blur boundaries between the political and Van der Bellen’s campaign made use of transmedia the non-political. Holtz-Bacha, Langer and Merkle (2014, (Jenkins, 2006, 2010) storytelling strategies aimed at am- p. 156) also stress this “shift in emphasis from the polit- plifying the reach of campaign messages through syner- ical to the personal sphere”. This is particularly relevant gistic use of multiple social media accounts and analogue for a strongly personality-influenced vote like the one for media (e.g., political posters). Nowadays, political “sto- the Austrian Federal Presidency, which is the only nation- rytellers use digital platforms alongside a range of other wide ad personam election in Austria. delivery channels so that each piece of media adds some- This article builds on previous studies while placing thing significant to the overall experience of the story special emphasis on the visual component of digital sto- world” (Jenkins, 2017, p. 1062). rytelling. While adding to the steadily growing scientific Digital Storytelling is not a new phenomenon literature on the strategic function of social media plat- (Kavoori, Lashley, & Creech, 2017, p. 1057). Henry Jenk- forms in election campaigns—which started in the early ins (2017, p. 1061) explains that it “could include stories 2000s after being boosted by the successful campaign of generated via digital tools, stories that involve various Barack Obama in the US (Keim & Rosenthal, 2016)—the forms of networked participation or interactivity, stories article also reacts to a request for research to be con- that are distributed via digital platforms, or stories that ducted on the role of visibility and imagery in political are consumed on digital platforms”. For Jenkins (2017, communication (cf. Schill, 2012). This research gap must p. 1062), “storytelling practices persist because they are be taken seriously in the light of a growing shift of com- meaningful to those who produce and consume them”. munication into the so-called “visual web”, which partic- Kevin J. Hunt (2015) states that “an inevitable part of po- ularly privileges visual forms of communication on digital litical rhetoric relies upon telling stories”. The latter help platforms. In an article on Instagram analyses, Tim High- potential voters to relate to rather abstract political ideas field and Tama Leaver (2016, p. 48) therefore declared (Hunt, 2015) as well as political candidates: “People con- the visual aspect to be a central topic of social media nect with candidates…the same way they connect with research. While previous studies have already discussed books and movies; they simply won’t engage without a the fact that “political messages are communicated [in] good story” (Weber, 2016). oral, written and visual language” (McNair, 2016, p. 506) Storytelling in politics generally relies on a wide range and provided, for instance, quantitative findings such as of strategies to shape personal and political narratives. the presence of different political actors in photographs, Such strategies comprise references to biographically qualitative approaches to the analysis of visual imagery relevant settings and locations, family histories, or the and strategies have not yet been applied to a sufficient use of personal photos within the context of the po- extent. This article increases the existing literature by a litical campaign (e.g., so-called throwback photos on qualitative-interpretative discussion of the visual dimen- Instagram). Austrian presidential candidate Alexander sion of digital storytelling. Van der Bellen used the story of the homeland (in Ger- The empirically based contribution provides an in- man: Heimat) as a central narration of his campaign. depth visual analysis of the strategic self-presentation The Green-backed candidate defined homeland as inclu- of the successful Austrian presidential candidate. Strate- sive concept in order to differentiate himself from his gic self-presentation refers to the intentionality of selec- right-wing contestant Norbert Hofer (Austrian Freedom tion and presentation routines on Instagram. Politicians Party/FPÖ). For Van der Bellen, home can be the Tyrolean employ personal photographers who have privileged ac- valley where his family found refuge during his childhood, cess in official

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