The use of Instagram by Catalan political parties during the referendum of 1 October

Abstract

Nowadays, Instagram is one of the most fashionable social networks. In the new digital ecosystem, companies and associations have begun to understand the benefit that produces its presence in this social network, as well as organizations such as political parties, within the political sphere. In Spain, concretely, the use of Instagram increases currently. A clear example of this situation is the political communication that the Catalan formations did through this social network during the independence referendum of this autonomous community, on 1 October 2017. Taking into account the media importance and the great diffusion of this event in social networks, the present paper aims to analyze the use that political parties represented in the Parliament of Catalonia registered in the social network of Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, in order to know the degree of relevance that Instagram has in the political sphere. The methodology applied consists of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. We can highlight among the main conclusions that political parties hardly use all the possibilities of this social network. And, on the other hand, that the separatist parties and its Instagram followers are the most active in the period analyzed.