Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election

The popularity of Instagram as a political tool has world leaders adopting it as an integral part of their communications. Over the recent years, governments and world leaders have flocked to the mobile photo and video sharing social network to share their official as well as personal pictures with...

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Main Author: Shafizan Mohamed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/1/35233-110391-1-PB.pdf
id ukm-13498
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-134982019-10-09T21:15:45Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/ Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election Shafizan Mohamed, The popularity of Instagram as a political tool has world leaders adopting it as an integral part of their communications. Over the recent years, governments and world leaders have flocked to the mobile photo and video sharing social network to share their official as well as personal pictures with a worldwide audience. Malaysian politicians are jumping on the Instagram bandwagon as well. Almost all the prominent politicians have an Instagram account and a significant number of followers. As such, this study explores Instagram’s affordance for visual imageries and political storytelling and its subsequent impact on political communication during election campaign. Methodologically, image analysis was conducted for two months on three Prime Ministerial candidates’ Instagram accounts running up to the historic Malaysian 14th General Election that happened on May 9th, 2018. The result showed that the candidates were actively using Instagram and were uniquely authoring their own stories by switching between narratives that were personal and political. These narratives were presented through six image types that included 1) fieldwork, 2) professionally-produced campaign materials, 3) politician-at-work, 4) family, 5) personal activities and 6) throwbacks. In addition, this analysis offers a crucial look into the mediatization and personalization of politics and contributes to the academic literature on social media, election campaign, as well as political communication in Malaysia. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/1/35233-110391-1-PB.pdf Shafizan Mohamed, (2019) Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election. Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian Journal of Communication, 35 (3). pp. 353-371. ISSN 0128-1496 http://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/issue/view/1210
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description The popularity of Instagram as a political tool has world leaders adopting it as an integral part of their communications. Over the recent years, governments and world leaders have flocked to the mobile photo and video sharing social network to share their official as well as personal pictures with a worldwide audience. Malaysian politicians are jumping on the Instagram bandwagon as well. Almost all the prominent politicians have an Instagram account and a significant number of followers. As such, this study explores Instagram’s affordance for visual imageries and political storytelling and its subsequent impact on political communication during election campaign. Methodologically, image analysis was conducted for two months on three Prime Ministerial candidates’ Instagram accounts running up to the historic Malaysian 14th General Election that happened on May 9th, 2018. The result showed that the candidates were actively using Instagram and were uniquely authoring their own stories by switching between narratives that were personal and political. These narratives were presented through six image types that included 1) fieldwork, 2) professionally-produced campaign materials, 3) politician-at-work, 4) family, 5) personal activities and 6) throwbacks. In addition, this analysis offers a crucial look into the mediatization and personalization of politics and contributes to the academic literature on social media, election campaign, as well as political communication in Malaysia.
format Article
author Shafizan Mohamed,
spellingShingle Shafizan Mohamed,
Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
author_facet Shafizan Mohamed,
author_sort Shafizan Mohamed,
title Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
title_short Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
title_full Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
title_fullStr Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
title_full_unstemmed Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election
title_sort instagram and political storytelling among malaysian politicians during the 14th general election
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2019
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13498/1/35233-110391-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:05:00Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:05:00Z
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