Den politiska kommunikationen har alltid varit nära kopplad till medier och i ett ständigt förändrat medielandskap har politiska partier och aktörer desto mer varit i behov av att anpassa sina strategier för att nå ut med sina budskap. Till följd av digitaliseringens stora genomslag har den visuella politiska kommunikationen blivit mer betydelsefull än någonsin tidigare där politiker kan kommunicera direkt till sina följare genom sociala plattformar. Genom den visuella sociala plattformen Instagram har därmed nya möjligheter skapats för hur den politiska kommunikationen framförs.  I linje med att sociala plattformar blir allt viktigare för den politiska kommunikationen blir också konstruktionen av det politiska personliga varumärket desto viktigare. Utifrån bakgrunden syftar studien till att undersöka hur svenska partiledare marknadsför och konstruerar ett varumärke av sig själva på det sociala mediet Instagram. Genom en kvalitativ socialsemiotisk analys med utgångspunkt i ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av politisk kommunikation, politisk personalisering, och socialsemotik visar resultaten på att samtliga partiledare använder sig av personalisering i sina flöden. Trots att de svenska partiledarna påvisade olika omfattningar av den personliga marknadsföringen gick det att se mönster i deras flöden som tyder på liknande strategier i sitt sätt att producera och publicera innehåll på, trots deras olika placeringar på den politiska skalan. Därmed ämnar studien bidra till bredare existerande forskningsdiskussion om medialiserad politik och de sociala mediernas betydelse för den politiska kommunikationen. / Political communication has historically always been closely connected with traditional media and in a continuously changing media landscape, political parties and actors have found themselves increasingly in need of adapting their strategies to convey their message. Through the major developments caused by digitalization, visual communication has become more significant than where politicians can communicate directly to their followers through social platforms. Thus, the visual social platform Instagram has created new opportunities in how politicians communicate, and new conditions have been created for political communication.  In line with the fact that social platforms are becoming increasingly important for political communication, the construction of the political personal brand is also becoming more important. Given the background, the aim of this study is to examine how Swedish political party leaders market themselves and establish themselves as a brand on the social media platform Instagram. Through a qualitative social semiotic analysis based on a theoretical framework consisting of political communication, political personalization, and social semiotics the results of this study show that all the chosen party leaders use personalization in their Instagram-feed. Even though the results showed that the party leaders demonstrated different extents of personal marketing, it was possible to see patterns in their Instagram-feeds that indicate the use of similar strategies in their way of producing and publishing content, despite their individual political views. Thus, the study aims to contribute with further developments in the research-field of mediatized politics and the significance of social media platforms in political communication.

A qualitative study of the Swedish party leader’s presentation on Instagram.  Social media has become a big part of political communication. It makes it possible to spread messages and information directly to its voters without having to go through the traditional media, which they needed to before the age of social media. After finding a research gap about politicians' presentation on Instagram in a Swedish context, this study aims to examine four Swedish party leaders' presentations on Instagram by using qualitative methods where their image and text art studied. The study is based on Goffman's dramaturgical perspective and the phenomenon of personal branding.  The study shows that the party leaders' posts have a clear political focus with varied personal elements in the self-presentation depending on the party leader and the political affiliation. Posts with political content show a prominence that aims to emphasize its role as a leader, which is enhanced by the formal dress and the setting shown in the pictures. These posts are aimed to influence, inform and enlighten. The more private and personal pictures are supposed to present an ordinary side of the party leader and create recognition that the voters can relate to by showing emotions, family life and hobbies. But even though these pictures may feel personal and look like the party leader lets the followers into private life, there is an impression control, where they themselves have chosen what they want to share and highlight the sides in the self that they want to associate their personal brand with.

This study, ​“‘I’ve never been politically correct – truthfully it takes far too much time and can often make it more difficult to achieve total victory’ - a Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's speeches during United States presidential election of 2016”​, examines the political communication through linguistic strategies throughout 10 of Donald Trump’s speeches from the Trump rallies during the election year 2016. In order to serve that purpose, this thesis investigates which ones of the discourses that dominates the republican agenda in this context. ​Accordingly to the Critical Discourse Analysis the aim is also to see whether the worldview in Trumps speeches is constructed or deconstructed. The study is based on a theoretical framework with theories about social constructionism, nationalism and populism. A quantitative content analysis was made through the online text tool “Textometrica” in order to see Trumps main discourses. The qualitative content analysis was made through Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model for a Critical Discourse Analysis. According to the analysis of this study, the five main discourses are ​Establishment, Trump, USA, Immigration ​and​ Work​. Around these discourses, Donald Trump’s main strategy is constructing an opposition between “us” and “them”, where “us” consist with Trump himself and the american people, and “them” includes the establishment, other countries and immigrants. Based on these opponents, and through disparaging “them” in a strategy, here called “the thief-strategy”, Trump constructs a reality where “us” is the better half and he appears as the hero in this duo. In conclusion, Trumps strategy in order to win the presidential election 2016 included running a political agenda characterized by populism which later on can lead to a polarized community, and a dissatisfied american people who will be open for change and a new leader.

This study aims to describe the strategic political communication of the Identitarian Movement in Austria (in German known as Identitäre Bewegung Österreich) and concentrates on identifying means of persuasive language on the homepage of the movement, which is known to be nationalistic and critical towards migration. The study is based on a corpus containing a selection of blog entries, as well as a sample of images published on the homepage, and is carried out using a qualitative method combining discourse linguistics, systemic-functional linguistics and multimodal theory. The analysis sets off by describing the field component of systemic-functional theory and proceeds to examining tenor and mode. The focus will be specifically on firstly, investigating a) discourse participants and the processes they engage in and b) interaction between the implied sender and recipient in the verbal material; and secondly, describing how these meanings are reproduced visually in the image sample used. The findings suggest that the movement not only strives to portray itself as powerful and authoritative but also relies on means of solidarity in order to convince the recipient of its message. More specifically, it is shown that the migrant participants are discriminated and depersonalised whilst a close synthetic relationship is established with the implied reader, i.e. the homepage visitor. Furthermore, the movement makes an effort to picture itself as a representative of numerous groups and interests in society. By doing so it apparently attempts to simulate a representative discourse, in order to present the xenophobic stance it agitates for as a majority opinion. The analysis shows also that these practices can be seen throughout the corpus, that is, in the verbal texts as well as in the imagery.

Syftet med denna fallstudie är att visa på en ökad förståelse kring regeringschefers förmåga att skapa förtroende sin kriskommunikation. Uppsatsen undersöker de tal till nationen som hölls av Sveriges statsminister Stefan Löfven och Storbritanniens premiärminister Boris Johnson vid Covid-19 pandemin under våren och hösten 2020. Uppsatsen utgår från ett retoriskt perspektiv och undersöker talens innehåll utifrån dess transkriberingar. Analysen utgår från uppsatsens teoretiska perspektiv som innefattar retorikens olika delar, appellformer och stilfigurer. Den utgår även från den retoriska situationen. Metoden som används är retorisk analys och utgår från uppsatsens disposition, argumentation, stil och retoriska situation. Den retoriska analysen skapar möjligheten att analysera och tolka talen både i sin helhet men också genom meningar, ord och tecken. Vidare diskuteras resultaten utifrån tidigare forskning och teoretiska perspektiv med ett fokus på politiskt förtroende och kriskommunikation.   Uppsatsen finner resultatet att regeringscheferna använder samtliga retoriska verktyg som undersöks i sina tal. Det framgår även att dessa verktyg används av regeringscheferna i syfte att öka förtroendet för dem som regeringschefer. Utifrån tidigare forskning går det se att både Löfven och Johnson fick ett ökat förtroende en kort tid efter att de första talen genomfördes, vilket indikerar att regeringscheferna kan ha lyckats uppnå ett förtroende genom sin kriskommunikation. / The aim of this case study is to gain more understanding of the head of government's ability to create trust in their crisis communication. The essay examines speeches to the nation, given by the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring and fall of 2020. The essay uses a rhetorical perspective and examines the content of the speeches based on their transcripts. The analysis is based on the theoretical framework of the essay, which includes the rhetorical theory, three modes of persuasion and the figures of speech. It is also based on the rhetorical situation. The rhetorical analysis is the method used in the case study which focuses on the speech's disposition, argumentation, style and rhetorical situation. The rhetorical analysis makes it possible to analyze and interpret language both in its ensemble, but also through sentences, words, and signs. Furthermore, results based on previous research and theoretical perspectives are discussed with a focus on political trust and crisis communication.   The essay concludes that both Löfven and Johnson use all the rhetorical tools that are examined in their speeches. It is also clear that these tools are used by Löfven and Johnson to gain trust as Heads of Government. Based on previous research, it can be seen that both Löfven and Johnson gained increased trust shortly after their speeches were given, which indicates that the heads of government may have succeeded in gaining confidence through their crisis communication.

The study of political communication is an old and diverse field, and the media has been proven to have an effect on their readers. The narratives that they create in their reporting can be as damning as they can be auspicious. Therefore, the study of media and how they frame certain events is as important as it has ever been. The democratic primaries in 2016 were certainly an interesting event. Hillary Clinton, the apparent nominee of the party, faced off against Bernie Sanders, who, in America, is something as unusual as a democratic socialist. How were these two polar opposites framed? To find out, a framing analysis was made on New York Times and Washington Post, two of the largest newspapers in the US. The analysis was built around four “events” that were deemed important in the election. 195 articles were analyzed. The methods that were used were both quantitative and qualitative, and the theories of framing (how the media depicts the election) and agenda-setting (what the media deems to be important) were applied. The results showed that the two newspapers did not differentiate all that much from each other, except for a few percent in certain aspects. All in all, the narrative was obvious. Clinton was the candidate that would go on to win the nomination. She was also the most suitable candidate. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, was framed as the loser and as unsuitable. Though he was consistently framed as having more integrity than his opponent. Clinton was also the candidate that had the biggest focus on her. This was true for all of the events, and in both newspapers. The implications of the study are twofold. First, Sanders was consistently painted in a negative light, which created an undesirable narrative and gave him negative momentum. Secondly, the virtual duplication of the narratives in New York Times and Washington Post suggests that there was some kind of consensus. Either Clinton really was the obvious nominee for the party, or the media hampered Sanders chances to clinch the nomination by depicting him in a negative manner.