This assignment will utilize what you have learned about political communication to understand and analyze how politicians communicate with the public, the strategies they use and what are their goals and objectives. Select ONE political leader who regularly uses social media for communication and collect at least FIVE social media posts (from the same platform for consistency) that are used for political purposes (communicating policy decisions, engaging with other politicians, debating public issues, etc.). The posts can be in video, audio or text form but must be publicly accessible on a social media platform.
When selecting your social media posts, each post should represent a specific social media strategy that is employed by the politician. Focus on how each post affects their image, policies, and personas amongst their voters and followers. Avoid using multiple posts that use the same strategy but focus on different topics (ie two posts talking about international trade with different countries. They are both still about trade).
You can choose posts which are not in English, but you MUST provide an English translation (That should still be legible to understand the gist as the evaluation of the analysis will be based on this). The translation needs to be attached as a separate appendix to the assignment (A separate Turnitin link) with proper references to the original posts.
Additionally, you will also need to do a social media platform analysis. This analysis should be focused on the affordances of the platform that are useful for politicians to engage with the public, the demographics of people who use the platform in the politician’s country, determine if it is a useful platform and justify why.
The entire essay should be focused on answering the question of “How does this politician want to present themselves to the public?”
The essay should address the following:
● A brief description of the politician, their political affiliations, elected positions, and platforms. (5 marks)
● Present a social media platform analysis of the social media platform that is used by the politician. The analysis should cover the specific features of the platform that are beneficial for political engagement (for both politicians and the public) and how popular it is in the politician’s country. (10 marks)
● An overview for each of the social media posts and a justification for why you have chosen them to be representative of your chosen politician. All social media posts must be cited properly. (10 marks)
● Analyze their social media strategies and present a political persona that this politician is presenting through these social media posts. This should be related based on the lectures from the class or other relevant political communication sources. The conclusion should discuss if the politician was successful with this strategy. (15m)
For the analysis, you should include the following:
● Communication strategy – What is the strategy for this politician with these social media posts? Are they correcting information, communicating their positions on issues, engaging in public debate, or just mundane sharing (to communicate subtle values and principles)? Please explain what you think are their goals for each of these that you present.
● Presentation – Examine the language used, the rhetoric employed, dressing, delivery and even social media practices and think about how this affects their political image. Did they make use of memes, informal language, social media trends for these posts?
● Demographic engagement – Who do you think is the target demographic for these social media posts? This is not just limited to age, but also based on political beliefs, demographic groups (ethnicity, income level, education level, etc.). Are they engaging with potential new voters or their base of supporters? Do you think they were successful in reaching this demographic or representing themselves?
● Gaps and weaknesses – What were the weaknesses of these posts? Were they ineffective at communicating with certain aspects of their campaign or political platforms? Was it a weakness of the social media platform or their own lack of familiarity? What was the fallout from this?
● Media effectiveness – How effective were they with using the platform? Did they take advantage of its features? Could it be more effective if they had pursued a more traditional form of political communication?
Here are some basic requirements for this assignment:
● This assignment should be no longer than 17 pages (double-spaced, font size 12).
● Please submit an online copy to the Assignment 1 Turnitin Submission link on Times by the deadline. The similarity index limit is 20% and you will be allowed to resubmit as many times as you like until the final deadline. Please take note that the similarity index will only be updated within 24 hours once you’ve submitted more than 3 times, so plan accordingly.
● For this assignment, all use of AI tools is restricted.
● Please ensure that all references are properly cited and listed in the references in the back of the assignment.
Any late submissions will incur a penalty (1 mark) for each day it is late (To a maximum of one week). Extensions of deadlines will only be provided for emergency or special cases (which requires at least 48 hours’ notice before the assignment dea
