The influencer-politician narrative and his/her fandom. The case of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the ayusers on Instagram

Abstract

The influence of social media culture on political communication has led to the emergence of the influencer-politician narrative as the adaptation of the celebrity-politician to the medium. This paper analyses the communication of the politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her fandom (ayusers) on Instagram during a non-electoral period (June 2021-June 2022). To this end, a quantitative and qualitative content analysis was carried out on Díaz Ayuso’s official profile and the five most followed fandom accounts. The results show that Díaz Ayuso uses the same advertising and commercial strategies as influencers. Also, the presence of brands and celebrities was greater than that of political representatives or information about their own government initiatives in her posts. The decision to show personal and commercial content, following the logic of the politician’s humanisation, is rewarded by her followers showing more engagement towards these themes. At the same time, her fandom focuses its publications on praising Díaz Ayuso’s physical attractiveness and the political attack on the left (regional and national). Thus, Díaz Ayuso and the ayusers’ communication work in a complementary way on Instagram: the politician is always active and positive, in accordance with the logic of the medium and the cultural ideas associated with the female gender, while her fandom incorporates political and attacking content. This research advances knowledge about the narratives of humanisation of the politician in social media, as well as the growing importance of fandom within a context of digital permanent campaigning.