ME, YOU, And US: Constructing Political Persona on Social Networks During the 2015 UK General Election

Bethany Usher

doi:10.21153/ps2016vol2no2art608

Authors

Bethany Usher Teesside University, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/ps2016vol2no2art608

Keywords:

persona, social networks, political marketing, celebrity, microelectorates, authenticity, authority

Abstract

This article offers statistical and discourse analysis of political leaders’ profile pages during the 2015 UK General Election ‘short campaign’ as a means to better understand the construction of political persona on Social Network Sites (SNS). It examines this as a group production and promotional activity that variously used patterns and routines of both traditional and digital media to display leaders as party branded selves. Performances strived for balance between authority and authenticity, using the political self as a spectacle to direct microelectorates to specific actions. This study demonstrates how self-storytelling is shaped by the coded conventions or “house rules” of SNS, which are viewed as inescapable institutions for maintaining public visibility. It examines how linguistic and visual elements, linked to different political ideologies, chimed with Twitter and Facebook users and looks to the impact on political campaigning.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Bethany Usher, Teesside University, UK

Bethany Usher is a principal lecturer at Teesside University and a journalist, primarily writing news, analysis and opinion for newspapers. Her current practice is in digital campaigning and is informed by research into how public figures display specific identities on social media in order to increase visibility and direct audiences to action.

References

Arnould, Eric, Linda Price, and George Zinkhan. Consumers. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2003. Print.

Auty, Caroline and Alison Cowen. “Political parties on the Net – 4 years closer to cyber-utopia?” Aslib Proceedings 53.9 (2001): 340-352. Print.

Barbour, Kim, and P. David Marshall. “The academic online: constructing persona through the World Wide Web.” First Monday 17.19 (2012). Web.

Baxter, Graeme, Rita Marcella, Denise Chapman, and Alan Fraser. "Voters' information behaviour when using political actors' web sites during the 2011 Scottish Parliament election campaign." New Information Perspectives. 65.5 (2013): 515-533. Print.

Bennett, Lance. News: The Politics of Illusion. New York: Longman, 1988. Print.

Bennett, Natalie. https://twitter.com/natalieben (Account Created: Oct 2008)

---. https://www.facebook.com/GreenNatalieBennett (Account Created: Sep 2012)

Bell, Matthew. “Election 2015: Is this the first social media campaign?” Channel 4 News website. (2015). Web.

Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. “Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach.” Discourse Studies 7 (2005): 585–614. Print.

Busetta, Laura, and Valerio Coladonato. “Be Your Selfie: Identity, Aesthetics and Power in Digital Self-Representation” Networking Knowledge 8.6 (2015): 1-6. Web.

Cameron, David. https://twitter.com/David_Cameron (Account Created: Jan 2010)

---. https://en-gb.facebook.com/DavidCameronOfficial/ (Account Created: Sep 2013)

Clegg, Nick. https://twitter.com/nick_clegg (Account Created: Jun 2008)

---. https://www.facebook.com/nickclegg/ (Account Created: Mar 2008)

Corner, John, and Dick Pels. Media and the Restyling of Politics: Consumerism, Celebrity and Cynicism. London: Sage, 2003. Print.

Coleman S. “Elections as storytelling contests”, Contemporary Theatre Review. 25.2 (2015): 166-176. Web. http://opensample.info/elections-as-storytelling-contests

Coupland, Justine, and Nikolas Coupland. “Attributing stance in discourses of body shape and weight loss.” Stance: sociolinguistic perspectives. Ed. Alex Jaffe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 227-249. Print.

Damari, Rebecca. “Intertextual stancetaking and the local negotiation of cultural identities by a binational couple.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 14.5 (2010): 609–629. Print.

Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books, 1967. Trans. Nicholson Smith, 1994. Web.

Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1957. Print.

Du Bois, John.W. “The stance triangle.” Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction. Ed. Robert Englebretson. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2007. 137–182. Print.

Edwards, Janis. “Visual Literacy and Visual Politics: Photojournalism and the 2004 Presidential Debates.” Communication Quarterly 60.5 (2012): 681-697. Web.

Farage, Nigel. https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage (Account Created: Jan 2009)

---. https://www.facebook.com/nigelfarageofficial (Account Created: Sep 2010)

Gibson, Rachel, Marjorie Margolis, Danielle Resnick, and Stephen Ward. “Election campaigning on the WWW in the USA and UK: a comparative analysis.” Party Politics: 9.1 (2003): 47-75. Print.

Gibson, Rachel and Stephen Ward. “An outsider’s medium? The European elections and UK party competition on the Internet.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties 10.1 (2000): 173-191. Print.

Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity. Standford: Stanford University Press. 1991. Print.

Giles, David, Psychology of the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010. Print.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre, 1956. Web.

---. The Characteristics of Total Institutions. Paper: Walter Reed Institute, 1957. Web.

Hearn, Alison. “Producing “Reality” Branded Content, Branded Selves, Precarious Futures.” Companion to Reality Television: Theory and Evidence. Ed. Laurie Ouellette, Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print.

---. “‘Sentimental ‘Greenbacks’ of Civilization’: Cartes de Visite and the Pre-History of Self-Branding”, The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture. Ed. Matthew McAllister and Emily West. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Horton, Donald, and Richard Wohl. “Mass Communication and para-social interaction: observations on intimacy at a distance’” Psychiatry, 19 (1956): 213-229. Web.

Jankowski, Nicholas, Kristen Foot, Randolph Kluver, and Steven Schneider. “The Web and the

EP election: comparing political actor web sites in 11 EU Member States.” Information Polity 10.3 (2005): 165-176. Print.

Jerslev, Anne, and Mortensen Mette. “What is the Self in Selfie? Celebrification, phatic communication and performativity.” Celebrity Studies 7.2 (2016): 249-263. Web.

Kellner, Douglas. “Media Spectacle: Presidential Politics, and the Transformation of Journalism.” The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. Ed. Stuart Allen, Oxon: Routledge, 2010. 116-126. Print.

Kriess, Daniel. “Digital Campaigning.” Handbook of Digital Politics. Ed. Stephen Coleman and Deen Freelon. Cheltenhem: Elgar, 2015. 118-135. Print.

Mackey, Steve. “Persona – an old public relations problem?” Persona Studies 2.1 (2016): 84-96. Web.

Marland, Alex. “Political Photography, Journalism and Framing in the Digital Age.” Press/Politics 17.2 (2012): Web.

Marshall, P. David. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Print.

---. "The Promotion and Presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media." Celebrity Studies 1.1 (2010): 35-48. Web.

---. “Mapping the proliferation of the public self.” Journalism 15.2 (2014): 153-170. Print.

Marshall, P. David, Christopher Moore and Kim Barbour. "Persona as method: exploring celebrity and the public self through persona studies." Celebrity Studies 6.3 (2015): 288-305. Web.

Marwick, Alice. “You May Know Me from YouTube.” A Companion to Celebrity. Ed. Sean Redmond and P. David Marshall. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015. 333-349. Print.

Marwick, Alice, and danah boyd. "I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience." New Media & Society 13.1 (2011): 114-133. Print.

---. “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter", Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139-158. Print.

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. London: Routledge, 1964 (2003 reprint). Print.

Miliband, Ed. https://twitter.com/Ed_Miliband (Account Created: Jul 2009)

--- https://www.facebook.com/edmiliband/ (Account Created: Jul 2010)

Meyer, Thomas, and Hinchman, Lew. Media Democracy: How the Media Colonize Politics. Cambridge: Polity, 2002. Print

Michael, Bethan. “Social media, identity and democracy.” Media/Democracy. Ed. Alex Charles. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. 29– 47. Print.

Papacharissi, Zizi. "Without you, I'm nothing: performances of the self on Twitter." International Journal of Communication 6 (2012): 1989-2002. Web.

Rojek, Chris. Fame Attack: The Inflation of Celebrity and its Consequences. London: Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.

Ross, Karen, Susan Fountaine and Margie Comrie. “Facing up to Facebook: politicians, publics and the social media(ted) turn in New Zealand.” Media, Culture & Society 37.2 (2015): 251-269. Web.

Schumpeter, Joesph. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: Allen & Unwin, 1976. Print.

Senft, Teresa. Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Media. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Print.

---. “Microcelebrity and the Branded Self.” A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Ed. John Hartley, Jean Burgess, and Axel Bruns. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2013. Web.

Shifman, Limor. “The Cultural Logic of Photo-based Meme Genres.” Journal of Visual Culture 13.3 (2014): 340-358. Web.

Street, John. ‘The Celebrity Politician: Political Style and Popular Culture.” Media and the Restyling of Politics: Consumerism, Celebrity and Cynicism. Ed. John Corner and Dick Pels. London: Sage, 2003. Print.

Sturgeon, Nicola. https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon (Account Created: Jun 2010)

---. https://www.facebook.com/NicolaSturgeonSNP (Account Created: May 2013)

Thomas, Sarah. "Celebrity in the ‘Twitterverse’: history, authenticity and the multiplicity of stardom situating the ‘newness’ of Twitter.” Celebrity Studies 5.3 (2014): 242-255. Web.

Tolson, Andrew. “Hope Springs Eternal?: The Illusions and Disillusions of Political Celebrity.” A Companion to Celebrity. Ed. Sean Redmond and P. David Marshall. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015. 161-176. Print.

Tuchman, Gaye Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality. New York: The Free Press, 1978. Print.

Turner, Graeme. Understanding Celebrity. Los Angeles: Sage, 2013. Print.

Usher, Bethany “Twitter and the Celebrity Interview.” Celebrity Studies 6.3 (2015): 306-321. Web.

Wernick, Andrew. Promotional Culture: advertising, ideology and symbolic expression. London: Sage, 1991. Print.

Wood, Leanne. https://twitter.com/LeanneWood (Account Created: Apr 2008)

---. https://www.facebook.com/leanne.wood.714/ (Account Created: Apr 2008)

Zelizer, Barbie. About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.