Users’ engagement with male and female politicians’ Instagram posts
Evidence from Israel’s 2021 election
Keywords:
Social media, Gender, Instagram, Election campaignsAbstract
In a reality in which image and media representations (on both the traditional and social media) play a significant role in creating perceptions and influencing the public, it is important to examine whether female politicians have equal opportunities to promote themselves and their messages. The goal of the current study is to expand our understanding of the field of gender and politics on social media, while focusing on a popular yet rarely studied platform – Instagram. We examine whether Instagram, a popular visual social network, provides equal opportunities for female politicians compared to male politicians in terms of engaging with potential voters. Using Israel’s 2021 election campaign, we examined the Instagram posts of 38 politicians (19 women and 19 men) published during the week leading up to the elections (N=238 posts). In order to examine differences in male and female politicians’ usage and users’ engagement on Instagram, we examined various engagement measurements (likes, shares, and number of views of videos), as well as in the visual aspects of the posts. Even though Instagram’s visual nature provides women with an advantage, our findings show that female politicians were not able to generate higher engagement than male politicians on Instagram. Contrary to findings on Facebook, Instagram does not provide female politicians with an advantage, and they receive the similar engagement to the posts of their male counterparts. In addition, the findings indicate that when female politicians are seen in visuals and dressed in more formal and professional attire, they receive greater engagement on Instagram.
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