Self-presentation and counterstereotypic gender strategies in social media campaigning: An example from Taiwan's presidential election

Abstract

By employing a functional approach considering both topics and functions, this study explored and compared candidates’ presentation of textual and pictorial information in their social media campaigning through a combination of quantitative method and qualitative content analysis. Results indicated that the intentions of stereotype reversal were, to some extent, demonstrated in their discussions of policy and character issues. The female candidate emphasized policy but utilized emotional imagery as a neutralizer. By contrast, the male candidate more frequently discussed character issues and further softened the messages with emotional imagery. In terms of negative campaigning, the tactics accorded with their gender norms. The male candidate utilized both trait and issue attacks to challenge his rival's stereotypical feminine strengths, whereas the female candidate ignored the attacks by defending her party or challenging the incompetence of the opposing party. The textual and pictorial messages that received numerous likes and shares featured similar sentimental tones. More discussions elucidate how candidates co-opt stereotypic and counterstereotypic gender strategies for different topics and functions in social media campaigning and this research transcends previous studies that focused on only one type of message, either text or imagery.

Keywords

• Social media campaigning
• self-presentation
• gender stereotypes
• functional approach