The communication of Andalusian political parties on Instagram: interactivity, topics, and purposes

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Autonomous Region of Andalusia (Spain), and analyses messages posted in 2020 on the Instagram profiles of the by-then five main political parties of the region: Partido Popular, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, Ciudadanos, Vox, and Adelante Andalucía. Through a content analysis of the 1,805 posts published during the pandemic year of 2020, we study the degree of interactive communication of these parties (by using indicators that are both primary and secondary) as well as the main topics and purposes of the political posts in each profile. The results point to a lack of genuine interaction, a primary focus on the economy and health as main topics, and the positioning of individual politicians or parties as predominant purposes of the posts. These results are discussed on the grounds of the literature on Instagram political communication, and the theory of social media interactivity.

Keywords

• Instagram
• Political Communication
• Propaganda
• Andalusian Political Parties
• Interactivity