The Photos Worth 18,000 Words: How Donald Trump and Joe Biden Use Images on Instagram to Showcase and Legitimize Their Policies During Their First 100 Days in Office
Di Franco-Cascone, Lorenzo
Di Franco-Cascone, Lorenzo
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Abstract
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, so does the strategy to utilize it for one’s own benefit. Social media, such as Instagram, are used by public officials across the globe to connect with others. The common use of these platforms is to promote their policy actions and their agendas to demonstrate the work that they are doing. In doing so, they construct an image of themselves for the public and curate the content in a specific manner to achieve their political goals. This research seeks to answer the question, “How do the Instagram posts from the first 100 days of the Biden (2021) and Trump (2025) administrations construct a presidential image, highlight policy priorities, and selectively represent political realities, as interpreted through visual culture studies and critical media theory?” To answer this question, this research will establish a theoretical farmwork that outlines the previous scholarship on this subject along with a detailed understanding of the concepts of ‘visibility’ and ‘visuality’. This framework will then guide the analysis of the two cases studies that focus the social media content posted to the governmental and personal Instagram accounts of Biden and Trump. The results of the case studies suggest that the main strategy both presidents use to push their policy agenda is through a display of relatability. Where Biden uses tactics to make himself appear relatable to the average person through attire and vocabulary, while Trump uses playful imagery and jokes to minimize the seriousness of his policies.
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Master of Arts in International Affairs -- John Cabot University, Fall 2025.
Date
2025
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Keywords
Donald Trump, 1946-, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Presidents, United States, Instagram (Firm), Online social networks
Citation
Di Franco-Cascone, Gerardo. "The Photos Worth 18,000 Words: How Donald Trump and Joe Biden Use Images on Instagram to Showcase and Legitimize Their Policies During Their First 100 Days in Office"Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025..