En digital populistisk tidsanda? : En kvantitativ studie om Socialdemokraternas och Moderaternas användning av populistisk politisk kommunikation på Instagram

Sammanfattning

This study explores to what extent two Swedish mainstream parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Moderates, use populist political communication on Instagram. The study aims to examine whether their way of communicating has changed in response to the rise of the populist party the Sweden Democrats and if signs of a ”populist zeitgeist” can be identified in the Swedish context. Three key elements of populist political communication are derived from previous literature: people-centerism, anti-elitism and exclusion of out-groups. A quantitative content analysis of 363 instagram posts reveals that populist political communication could be found to a limited extent on both parties’ accounts. Regarding the Moderates, one single populist post was identified during the entire period studied, while a slight increase in populist posts could be observed on the account of the Social Democratic Party. Therefore, this study does not find strong support for a ”populist zeitgeist” in Swedish mainstream politics on Instagram.