In recent years, social networks are being used as a handy and efficient tool for political (visual) communication. It is about planned and controlled political communication, and about creating an image, both public and private. Instagram has started to be used as a tool for political communication among Slovenian politicians too, and there has been much talk about the personalization of politics. I therefore decided to analyse the personalization of Slovenian politicians on the Instagram social network. By means of an encoding table, I analysed the photographs of five politicians on their public profiles. I wished to determine how politicians self-represent through photographs. I posed the hypothesis that politicians’ photographs were a means of personalization. It has been established that politicians self-represent in several ways, which include production of the self, politicians’ performance, and typology of personalization. The results have shown that there is no correlation (no statistical significance) between the personalized and the non-personalized photographs, which is why the hypothesis has been refuted. Personalization is present in the photographs, however, in addition to the photographs showing their private lives, there are many photographs that show the public image of politicians within the political sphere. I believe that Instagram can be a useful tool for political communication and could be well utilised by politicians. In my opinion, personalization in politics is not necessarily a negative thing. Though it is my opinion that certain photographs from politicians’ private lives may discredit their public political image, I perceive personalization as useful in helping people to identify with politicians, who are, after all, mere mortals just like us.
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