ORDINARY PEOPLE LEADING EXTRAORDINARY LIVES The Personalization of Politics on Swedish Party Leaders’ Instagram

Abstract: The results showed that personalization was an integral part of how Instagram was used. The two main dimensions of personalization, individualization and privatization, proposed by Van Aelst, Sheafer and Stanyer, could be found in the respondents’ answers about how their respective party leader’s account was managed. This establishes that the dimensions of personalization are present to a large degree. that the results point to Instagram not only being a personalized arena if one conceives of it as focusing on party leaders, but also from a privatization dimension of focusing on personal characteristics and the party leader’s personal life. The results suggest that personalization manifested itself in how the account was managed, how it was used to portray the party leader as an” ordinary” person, how politics was presented through the personal life of the party leader, and in how authenticity served as the foundation for successfully personalizing the party leader.