The Impact of Ideological Positioning on the Communicative Styles Employed by Governments

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v17.5708

Keywords:

political communication, personalization, Instagram, politainment, leadership, political ideology, digital communication

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between ideological self-positioning and leadership styles communicated on Instagram by twelve female politicians. The research uses content analysis of 1,290 posts made during 2023. The study examines the correlation between the politicians' self-perceived ideological positioning and 1) the type of information communicated (soft information/politainment vs. hard information/political); 2) the projected leadership style (conciliatory/soft vs. firm/hard); 3) the level of personalization in their communications. The results reveal that women government leaders who identify with the right-wing ideological spectrum tend to: employ more politainment strategies; project a more conciliatory leadership style; and use more personalized communication.

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Author Biographies

Virginia García Beaudoux, CONICET-Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani-UBA

Virginia García Beaudoux. Professor of political communication at the University of Buenos Aires and Researcher at CONICET, Argentina.  She has been an annual guest lecturer since 2003 on postgraduate courses in political communication at various universities in Spain and Latin America.

Salomé Berrocal-Gonzalo, Universidad de Valladolid

Salomé Berrocal Gonzalo is Professor of Journalism at the University of Valladolid. Since 2013, she has directed the Recognised Research Group on New Trends in Communication (NUTECO) and is Coordinator of the Journalism Degree at the University of Valladolid.

Ana Slimovich, CONICET-Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani-UBA

Ana Slimovich has a PhD in Social Sciences, and a BA in Communication Sciences from the UBA. She works as an associate Researcher at CONICET at the Gino Germani Research Institute [Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani] of the UBA [University of Buenos Aires]. She received the "National Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Social Sciences", EUDEBA, and UBA (2019): "Las encrucijadas de la democracia lationoamericana” [The crossroads of Latin American democracy]. She is the author of the book: "Redes sociales, television y elecciones argentinas” [Social networks, television, and Argentine elections] (EUDEBA, 2022). She was a visiting professor at the undergraduate and graduate levels and conducted postdoctoral research stays at the Ibero-American Institute of the University of Salamanca (2019), at the Faculty of Communication of the University of Malaga (2020), at the Center for Ibero-American and Transatlantic Studies of the University of Malaga (2022), at the Faculty of Humanities and Technologies of Social Communication of the Metropolitan Technological University of Santiago de Chile (2022) and the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Public Administration and in the Doctorate Program in Social and Political Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Catholic University of Temuco (2023).

Leandro Bruni, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Leandro Bruni es Licenciado en Ciencia Política y Licenciado en Sociología, ambas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, y Magister en Sociología y Ciencia Política por FLACSO. Es profesor universitario en la materia "Taller de Opinión Pública" en la UBA y en "Opinión Pública y medios de comunicación" en la Universidad de Belgrano. Su última publicación en coautoría ha sido "Imágenes presidenciales disruptivas: descripción y comparación de los relatos políticos de Santiago Peña (Paraguay) y Bernardo Arévalo (Guatemala)" en la revista española Más Poder Local, en 2024.

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Published

2025-10-24

How to Cite

García Beaudoux, V., Berrocal-Gonzalo, S., Ana Slimovich, & Bruni, L. (2025). The Impact of Ideological Positioning on the Communicative Styles Employed by Governments. VISUAL REVIEW. International Visual Culture Review Revista Internacional De Cultura Visual, 17(6), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v17.5708

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 6 (2025)

Section

Research articles

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