Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media
Political leaders play a crucial role in shaping societal perceptions and citizens’ expectations of gender roles. Through their self-presentation on social media, political leaders have the power to either reinforce or challenge existing gender stereotypes, thereby influencing how citizens perceive...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2024-09-01
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| Series: | Nordic Journal of Media Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0008 |
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| author | Magin Melanie Haßler Jörg Larsson Anders Olof Skogerbø Eli |
| author_facet | Magin Melanie Haßler Jörg Larsson Anders Olof Skogerbø Eli |
| author_sort | Magin Melanie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Political leaders play a crucial role in shaping societal perceptions and citizens’ expectations of gender roles. Through their self-presentation on social media, political leaders have the power to either reinforce or challenge existing gender stereotypes, thereby influencing how citizens perceive and interpret gender norms. However, research on how women and men politicians present themselves on social media is scarce. This comparative study contributes to remedying this research gap by content analysing the official Facebook and Instagram pages of 18 political leaders during the 2021 national election campaigns in Germany and Norway. In contrast to earlier research on gendered presentations of politicians in the news, we did not find strong evidence of gendered self-presentations in either country, neither in terms of personalisation nor in terms of gender issue ownership. This could be because gender roles in Germany and Norway have become more fluid, or because the successful politicians we have analysed have been successful due to their ability to “walk the double bind” of needing to conform to both masculine and feminine gender expectations. Our study calls for more comparative research into this field, including studies of lower profile politicians and politicians in countries with lower degrees of gender equality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3073ec791adf49b493fcc73bb6aef0cf |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2003-184X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-09-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of Media Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-3073ec791adf49b493fcc73bb6aef0cf2025-02-02T15:48:44ZengSciendoNordic Journal of Media Studies2003-184X2024-09-016115718410.2478/njms-2024-0008Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social mediaMagin Melanie0Haßler Jörg1Larsson Anders Olof2Skogerbø Eli3Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Sociology and Political Science, NorwayLmu Munich, Department of Media and Communication (ifkw), GermanyKristiania University College, Department of Communication, NorwayUniversity of Oslo, Department of Media and Communication, NorwayPolitical leaders play a crucial role in shaping societal perceptions and citizens’ expectations of gender roles. Through their self-presentation on social media, political leaders have the power to either reinforce or challenge existing gender stereotypes, thereby influencing how citizens perceive and interpret gender norms. However, research on how women and men politicians present themselves on social media is scarce. This comparative study contributes to remedying this research gap by content analysing the official Facebook and Instagram pages of 18 political leaders during the 2021 national election campaigns in Germany and Norway. In contrast to earlier research on gendered presentations of politicians in the news, we did not find strong evidence of gendered self-presentations in either country, neither in terms of personalisation nor in terms of gender issue ownership. This could be because gender roles in Germany and Norway have become more fluid, or because the successful politicians we have analysed have been successful due to their ability to “walk the double bind” of needing to conform to both masculine and feminine gender expectations. Our study calls for more comparative research into this field, including studies of lower profile politicians and politicians in countries with lower degrees of gender equality.https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0008election campaigningstandardised content analysisgender issue ownershipgender stereotypespersonalisationsocial media |
| spellingShingle | Magin Melanie Haßler Jörg Larsson Anders Olof Skogerbø Eli Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media Nordic Journal of Media Studies election campaigning standardised content analysis gender issue ownership gender stereotypes personalisation social media |
| title | Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media |
| title_full | Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media |
| title_fullStr | Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media |
| title_short | Walking the line of the double bind: A cross-country comparison on women and men politicians’ self-presentations on social media |
| title_sort | walking the line of the double bind a cross country comparison on women and men politicians self presentations on social media |
| topic | election campaigning standardised content analysis gender issue ownership gender stereotypes personalisation social media |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0008 |
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