The Personalization of Political Communication in Social Media Era. Case Study: Gabriela Firea, the Mayor of Bucharest

• Author: Adina-Loredana Dogaru-Tulica
• Position: PhD in progress, Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest (FJSC)
• Pages: 360-367

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2019

360

The Youth of Today - The Generation of the Global

Development

The Personalization of Political Communication in Social Media Era. Case

Study: Gabriela Firea, The Mayor of Bucharest

Adina-Loredana Dogaru-Tulică 1

Abstract: Social media era brought a major change in the way politicians communicate online with their voters.

Social platforms are bringing politicians closer to people and communication is now more interactive and more

personalized. The paper examines how a woman politician, the mayor of Bucharest, the capital city of Romania,

uses social media to promote personalized messages in daily political communication during an ordinary period

of office. Politicians use personalized communication in the online environment to transmit both personal

information about family life, religious orientation, personal experiences, and to disseminate i nformation of

public interest that has not been made public by traditional media. This fades the boundary between what is

public and what is private. There is a broad agreement on the fact that the personalization of the political

message must be studied as a multidimensional phenomenon (Holtz-Bacha et alii, 2014; Nave, N. et alii, 2018)

being “a natural consequence of transformations at the level of political and media systems, at the level of

society and public culture” (Toader, 2017) transforming politicians into “intimate strangers” (Stainer, 2007).

The research analyzes the personalized messages on the Facebook page of Gabriela Firea, the mayor of

Bucharest, between 1st of July and 31st December 2018 on quantitative criteria, as well as the reactions of the

online public and is part of a larger research work that approaches the triad of women political leadership, social

media (Facebook) and political communication from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Keywords: political message; Facebook; individualization; social media reactions;

1. Introduction

Social media brought a major change in how politicians communicate online with their voters. Social

platforms bring politicians closer to people and communication is now more interactive and

personalized. Politicians are exposed to public space both as professionals and as private individuals.

Social media, especially Facebook, highlights politicians as individuals rather than as members of a

political party, thus causing the political arena to embrace personalized communication, providing the

context that favours the personalization of the political message.

Political communication is becoming more personalized, politicians seem to choose a role to play and

“the image of politician prevails in relation to the personality of the politician”. Politicians prefer to

improve their public image and citizens come into contact more with “virtual realities” and less with

face-to-face politicians. (Fârte, 2004/2005, p. 106) Social media allows emotional connection with users

1 PhD in progress, Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences,

University of Bucharest (FJSC), Address: Complex Studențesc "Leu", Corp A, Bulevardul Iuliu Maniu 1-3, București 061071,

Tel.: 021 318 1555, Romania; E-mail: tulica.loredana@gmail.com.