Political image during the electoral period: Based on materials of the pre-election campaign in the Nizhny Novgorod region in 2023

Abstract

The content of the political image of one of the regional Russian leaders during the electoral period (elections of heads of Russian constituent entities in 2023) is studied in the article. The purpose of the paper is to identify the features of the symbolic and semantic content of the network image of a regional political leader during the pre-election period. Fulfillment of the set research goal is carried out using the concept of the image-role construct and methods of content analysis (qualitative-quantitative type) and comparative analysis. The information array is consisted of text records posted on the official website of the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region G. S. Nikitin on “VKontakte” and in his Telegram-channel, for the period from May to September 2023. Based on the results of the study, it was revealed that the most popular image-role construct on both Internet platforms was “economic manager”. Next in frequency of occurrence are such constructs as “team player”, “a leader who is aware of various details of current problems» and «a leader looking to the future”. The conclusion was made about the closeness of the occurrence frequency indicators of different symbolic and semantic constructs within the image of a leader presented within the two indicated network communication channels (on the official page on “VKontakte” and in the Telegram-channel).