Instagramming the Political Image: Visual Campaigning Strategies of Successful Opposition Candidates in Turkey’s 2019 Mayoral Elections

Abstract

This study explores how opposition political candidates strategically use Instagram images for their election campaigns in a competitive authoritarian regime. The article focuses on Turkey’s 2019 mayoral elections and reports findings from 452 Instagram posts by the winning candidates in the three biggest cities (İzmir, Ankara, and İstanbul), all of whom are from the opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The results from a quantitative content analysis show that all elected mayors mainly applied their traditional media strategies directly to Instagram as part of broadcasting purposes. They rarely extended their campaigning to other media platforms as part of a hybrid campaign strategy. Implications of the role of Instagram in challenging incumbent parties in competitive authoritarian regimes are discussed.