Framing political identity: Mayoral candidates’ Instagram strategies in the 2024 Turkish local elections

Social media has become a key arena for political self-presentation. This study examines how mayoral candidates in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir crafted their images on Instagram during the 2024 Turkish local elections, drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and Grabe and Bucy’s visual framing model. A quantitative content analysis of 570 posts from six candidates was conducted in the three weeks preceding the elections. Findings show that candidates emphasized professionalism and leadership while avoiding extensive displays of private life. Yet, strategies of proximity – such as encounters with citizens and symbolic appeals to ordinariness – were also mobilized to complement authority with relatability. This dual performance demonstrates that professional and populist identities are co-constructed within the same communicative repertoire. By situating personalization and visual framing theories in the Turkish local election context, the study reveals that personalization operates primarily through individualization rather than privatization. This pattern reflects the distinct dynamics of local campaigns in competitive authoritarian contexts, where professional authority and controlled proximity coexist within candidate-centred yet professionalized visual repertoires.