Photo-text interaction as a political communication strategy on Instagram during the campaign for the Spanish election of 28 April 2019

Abstract

In recent years, Instagram as a social network for photo exchange has become an important channel in the communication strategies of political actors at both the national and international level. This article studies Instagram from a differential perspective from previous studies by analyzing the strategic management of the photo-text binomial on this social network within the context of political communication. The methodological design of this research consists of a quantitative approach based on content analysis. Relying on a model of analysis developed by us, we revised three categories associated with the central parameters of the photographic image, the text, and their interrelationship during the campaign for the Spanish election of 28 April (dated between the 12 and 26 April 2019, both inclusive). The selection of this period is due to the belief that this is a key moment in the political sphere because it invoked great social interest and information consumption and, consequently, greater concern from the parties about the strategic communication of their political actions. The sample comprised 314 posts published by the five main Spanish parties and their respective leaders, candidates for the Government´s Presidency. The results reveal that complementarity dominates as the main form of interaction between the two components (image and text), albeit with a significant presence of problematic interaction types such as redundancy or independence. Despite the progressive professionalization of the political use of social networks, it was found that the potentially effective use of the verbal-icon tandem is not currently applied on Instagram as a strategic approach for political communication.