Ju fler desto bättre? : En kvantitativ studie om hur Miljöpartiet använder emojis på Instagram samt vilken effekt det har på mottagare

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Green Party, which is a part of the Swedish parliament, uses emojis on Instagram. In addition, the study examines whether the usage has increased or not during the time period 2014-2021. The thesis also aims to find out how the use of emojis affects media users' perceptions of the message. Lastly, the study intends to find answers about the effect emojis have on media use, if emojis generate engagement in the form of likes and comments. To understand and analyze the purpose of this thesis, we have used Stuart Hall's theory of encoding/decoding. We have also discussed political communication based on the mediatization of politics through media logic and social media logic. The material collection is based on two methods, quantitative content analysis and questionnaire survey. The findings of the study showed that the Green Party’s use of emojis had increased between the time period 2014-2021. Further on it was shown that the use of emojis increased in relation to likes and comments which indicates that emojis generate engagement. The study also displayed that the chances of a media user to perceive a message in a positive and humoristic way enlarge significantly by the use of emojis. The thesis offers an understanding on how the Green Party have changed their political communication over time and also highlights the power of using emojis on Instagram.