Dictator’s Instagram: personal and political narratives in a Chechen leader’s social network

IF 0.5 Q3 AREA STUDIES

Caucasus Survey Pub Date : 2019-01-18 DOI:10.1080/23761199.2019.1567145

E. Rodina, Dmitriy Dligach

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引用次数: 14

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore how social networks, Instagram in particular, can be utilized by an autocrat in order to construct and promote the image of a charismatic leader. To do so, we conduct a topic modelling of 6854 Instagram posts made by Ramzan Kadyrov, the dictatorial head of the autonomous Chechen Republic in the Russian Federation. We then analyze the verbal framing of 24 dominant topics. The study concludes that the main rhetorical device that Kadyrov employs is a merging of personal and political themes throughout his posts. He personalizes political discussion by discussing public interest topics through the prism of his own personal life, and inserts political discourse into personal, intimate posts about his family, pastimes, and friends. The study shows that this tactic, often understood by media researchers as an oppositional device for harnessing popular support against an autocratic state, can be just as successfully employed by an autocratic leader. Kadyrov, who in his Instagram combines the tactics of a populist politician and an internet celebrity, has shaped a personality that can be best described as a “flirting populist” (Vezjak, Boris. 2018. “Dobro zmaguje: predsednik kot krščanski populist.” In Media Res (personal blog), https://vezjak.com/2018/01/02/dobro-zmaguje-predsednik-kot-krscanski-populist/), which, as we suggest, is a new, online technology-enhanced type of a political figure.

查看原文本刊更多论文

独裁者的Instagram:车臣领导人社交网络中的个人和政治叙事

摘要本研究的目的是探讨独裁者如何利用社交网络，尤其是Instagram，来构建和提升魅力型领导者的形象。为此，我们对俄罗斯联邦车臣自治共和国的独裁领导人拉姆赞·卡德罗夫(Ramzan Kadyrov)发布的6854条Instagram帖子进行了主题建模。然后，我们分析了24个主要话题的语言框架。该研究得出结论，卡德罗夫使用的主要修辞手段是在他的帖子中融合个人和政治主题。他通过自己个人生活的棱镜来讨论公共利益话题，将政治讨论个人化，并将政治话语插入关于他的家庭、娱乐和朋友的私人私密帖子中。这项研究表明，这种策略通常被媒体研究人员理解为利用民众支持反对专制国家的一种对立手段，也可以被专制领导人成功地采用。卡德罗夫在他的Instagram上结合了民粹主义政治家和网红的策略，塑造了一个可以被最好地描述为“调情民粹主义者”的个性(Vezjak, Boris. 2018)。“Dobro zmaguje: prepresednik kot krščanski民粹主义者。”在Media Res(个人博客)，https://vezjak.com/2018/01/02/dobro-zmaguje-predsednik-kot-krscanski-populist/)，我们认为这是一种新的，在线技术增强的政治人物类型。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Caucasus Survey Arts and Humanities-History

CiteScore

1.30

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Caucasus Survey is a new peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and independent journal, concerned with the study of the Caucasus – the independent republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, de facto entities in the area and the North Caucasian republics and regions of the Russian Federation. Also covered are issues relating to the Republic of Kalmykia, Crimea, the Cossacks, Nogays, and Caucasian diasporas. Caucasus Survey aims to advance an area studies tradition in the humanities and social sciences about and from the Caucasus, connecting this tradition with core disciplinary concerns in the fields of history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cultural and religious studies, economics, political geography and demography, security, war and peace studies, and social psychology. Research enhancing understanding of the region’s conflicts and relations between the Russian Federation and the Caucasus, internationally and domestically with regard to the North Caucasus, features high in our concerns.