Insights Into Canada’s Digital Media, Branding and Political Image Management

A country's image making is a very multidimensional process, which involves different political, economic, social, cultural and communication aspects of a country's development. Furthermore, the recent spread of digital initiatives in foreign ministries is considered a revolution in the practice of diplomacy (digiplomacy). Drastic technological, political, economic, cultural and linguistic changes enhanced the turbulence of the modern world order, and with all human endeavours, transformed the whole system of international relations, and consequently, traditional forms of diplomacy (Bohatyrets, 2016)Bohatyrets, V. (2016). "Digital Diplomacy as a Core Vector of a Country's Image Making/ Communication Practices in Modern Political Discourse": Mediaforum: Analytics, Prognosis, Media Management, Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, 3/4, 67-76..

Noteworthy, a series of recent studies has indicated that several attempts have been made to highlight the problem of a political leader or a country's image making as a turning point in peoples' perception of politics, digital media, elections tellies, and shaping public opinion.

The topicality of the study stemmed from a number of political, social, economic, psychological, and media-related factors. The survey and careful selection of arguments and information available in books, articles, online sources, and networking platforms allowed us to gather a set of theoretical framework and identify important concepts of understanding the impact of digital media on branding and political image management in both Canada and the globe. We consider it appropriate to disclose a detailed analysis of the researchers' assessments and conclusions on the main problems of our study.

Theoretical Perspective

When theorizing on the topics of digital media, branding and political image management three arguments indicate that social media indeed pose campaign environments distinct from mass communication arenas. Demonstrating beneficial personality traits and improving name recognition is a campaign to internalize a whole set of platform-specific affordances on social media in order to demonstrate that it represents the `state of the art'. Politicians understand the significance of visuals and work equally hard to construct effective image bites as they do powerful sound bites. In other words, visual images play a central role in constructing political images (Schill, 2012)Schill, D. (2012). "The Visual Image and the Political Image: A Review of Visual Communication Research in the Field of Political Communication." Review of Communication, 12:2, 118-142. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15358593.2011.653504 (accessed 24 June 2019).. The `Fourth Estate' has an invaluable position as both a press officer and watchdog of political elite because it constantly rel ays and records every action and policy undertaken by central public and political figures, which become a sizeable topic in the press and news media. The presidency has evolved and shifted with presidents of different personalities and policy positions, and it has changed based on different political contexts in the country and the world, but the fundamental relationship between the press and the presidency is the same (Mannerberg, 2017)Mannerberg, L. (2017). The Presidency and the Media: An Analysis of the Fundamental Role of the Traditional Press for American Democracy. Available at: https://www.albany.edu/honorscollege/files/LaurenMannerberg. pdf (accessed 17 December 2019)..

Political marketing tends to de-emphasize the significance of communication, popular culture and personality in politics, and argues that the brand as a concept can bring together the economic and the aesthetic, rational choice and cultural resonance. It proposes a model of brand distinctiveness and argues that this may be useful both in the analysis of party communication and in the normative evaluation of that communication. This is a valuable insight and it is an important step forward in our understanding of political image. However, it is best thought of as an addition, rather than replacement, of economic models of political marketing. Personality or celebrity politics is indeed a phenomenon of our age, but it remains empirically under-explored and it is far from clear that personal appeal has displaced party identity and issue evaluation in assessments of voters' choices (Scammel, 2015)Scammel, M. (2015). "Politics and Image: the Conceptual Value of Branding". Journal of Political Marketing Forthcoming DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4447.6165 Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266565152_ (accessed 23 March 2019)..

Owing to the different architectures of social media platforms as well as information revolution and globalization, digital media, branding and political image management prove to have become of significant value in changing the landscape and essence of traditional political campaigning into one of the most proficient and sophisticated marketing tactics. As stated by Lees-Marshment (2006), it is argued that "if a political party implements the marketing philosophy, it will seek to meet voters needs and wants, thus producing voter satisfaction, and in doing so gain electoral support to meet its own goals"Lees-Marshment, J. (2006). "Political Marketing Theory and Practice: A Reply to Ormrod's Critique of the Lees-Marshment Market-Oriented Party Model". Politics. 26(2), 119-125. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9256.2006. 00258.x..

According to the authoritative sources, Canada, being ranked number one in the world alongside the United-Kingdom in the 2018 Open Data Barometer (a global measure), has manifested its government's efficacy in publishing and using open data. Open Government partnership includes three leadership priorities:

Inclusion (enabling citizens, civil society and business to participate in government decisionmaking; and, consequently, leading to trustfulness in government and better outcomes);

Participation (empowering under-represented citizens regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation, to engage actively with governments; respectively testifying to more equitable governments) and Impact (contributing to citizens' embrace how open government affects their day -to-day lives and, thus, making government accountable for results that make a difference). In a coercive digital age, open government is a critical resource to make democracies more accountable and transparent to their citizens. Simultaneously, digital technology is everywhere in today's society, and regulating it is a crucial mission that requires the creation of a new independent body with legislative reach (Jean- Hugues, 2019)Jean-Hugues, R. (2019). Why should we regulate social media giants? Because it's 2019, Prime Minister Trudeau. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-should-we-regulate-social-media-giants-because-its-2019- prime-minister-trudeau-117889 (accessed 23 September 2019)/. Since worldwide competitiveness of the 21^st century has made every country strive for its paragon branding and for its being favorably perceived and recognized all over the world, Canada hosted the 2019 global Open Government Partnership Summit in Ottawa in May, it was an opportunity for Canada to share its progress on digital policy initiatives (Government of Canada, 2018)Government of Canada (2018). Canada begins its year of leading the international Open Government Partnership. Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/news/2018/10/canada-begins-its-year- of-leading-the-international-open-government-partnership.html (accessed 23 March 2019). Gunn, S. and Skogerb0, E. (2013). "Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics". Information, Communication & Society, 16:5, 757-774, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2013.782330..

In another study of visual marketing strategy and effectiveness, Edward Elder and Justin Phillips analyse "the effectiveness of Facebook autoplay videos in targeting potential voters, specifically the coveted Hispanic demographic by the Clinton campaign Social media like Facebook a nd Twitter place the focus on the individual politician rather than the political party, thereby expanding the political arena for increased for personalized campaigning". The authors claim that using social media has become the top priority and prerequisite for politicians, public figures and heads of states to communicate their personal image and to convey their messages have become the most efficient toolkit for a political image management. "Within this framework, the personalized and dialogical aspects of digital media may be contradicted by the political parties' structural communication strategies. The research findings show that `politicians' report both marketing and dialogue with voters as motives for their social media use and their practices varied, too. Politicians reported motive to use social media for marketing purposes was reflected in their actual use. The preferred social media platform for marketing purposes was Facebook. Twitter was more used for continuous dialogue compared to Face- book. Social media marketing was personalized and involved private exposure and individual initiatives" (Gunn and Skogerb0, 2013)¹¹.

M. Scammell (2015) argues that the brand concept is a powerful tool for understanding political images. It challenges typical economic versions of political marketing that tend to deemphasize the significance of communication, popular culture, and personality in politics and argues that the brand as a concept can bring together the economic and the aesthetic, rational choice and cultural resonance. It proposes a model of brand distinctiveness and argues that this may be useful both in the analysis of party communication and in the normative evaluation of that communicationScammell, M. (2015). "Politics and Image: The Conceptual Value of Branding", Journal of Political Marketing, 14:1-2, 7-18, DOI: 10.1080/15377857.2014.990829..

C. Munoz and Terri L. Towner (2017) explored the role that ima ges played in framing political character development and identified which images received higher levels of engagement; content analyses were performed on the top seven primary candidates' Instagram accounts. "Results indicate that candidates most frequently employ the ideal candidate frame in their images, which also garnered the highest number of user likes and comments. Results also reveal that among Instagram image attributes, candidates frequently and successfully used text within their images, but filters were inconsistently applied across the candidates" Munoz, C. and Towner, T. (2017). "The Image is the Message: Instagram Marketing and the 2016 Presidential Primary Season", Journal of Political Marketing, 16:3-4, 290-318, DOI: 10.1080/15377857.2017.1334254..

In his seminal work, T. Murse (2019) aims to delve into the problem of the impact of social media in politics including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube on officials and public's communication. The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters. In addition, the capacity of publishing targeted content and broadcasting it to millions of social media users immediately enables campaigns to carefully manage their candidates' images based on analytics. The researcher concludes that social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube empowers politicians to influence voters and encourage their final decision-making. "Using those social media allows politicians to circumvent the traditional method of reaching voters through paid advertising or earned media. Twitter and Facebook have become instrumental in organizing campaigns. They allow like-minded voters and activists to easily share news and information such as campaign events with each other. That's what the `Share ' function on Facebook and `retweet' feature of Twitter"Murse, T. (2019). How Social Media Has Changed Politics. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/how- social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534, (accessed 23 March 2019)..

Mannerberg (2017:8) discloses the role of the press in American Democracy, ".. .those few who are typically more interested in political news tend to seek out news that aligns with their political ideol o- gies and beliefs, which is easy to accomplish in today's hyper partisan media landscape. Presidents of the recent past decades have therefore struggled to have a successful relationship with the press, and even if they do manage to have a positive one, the news media in general is often thought to be not as effective or significant as it once was. However, this is not the entire truth. Although the press has gone through enormous changes in technology and a shift towards more partisan media the fundamental relationship between the press and the presidency has been maintained. The press in America has gone through large changes and a significant evolution over time, especially in the last decade with the advent of new technology, like the Internet and social media, and an increase in the partisan nature of American politics. Media has changed but the role of the press has notMannerberg, L. (2017). Op. cit..

In view of that, the research article presents insights into digital media, branding and political image management aspect of campaign targeting.

Objectives and Tasks

The objective of the research is to present the insights into digital media, branding and political image management aspects of campaign targeting.

To achieve the objective, the study, firstly, briefly highlights digital media as a tool for shaping national branding and political image making, secondly, analyses Canada's digital policy and figures out the most influential social media networks in Canada; thirdly, discloses D. Trudeau's positive image making and promoting it in social media.

Methodology

The major and key approaches to the study consist in data collecting and desk research (the secondary research). Desk research involves using synthesis of already existing research rather than primary research, where data were collected through the research subjects or experiments. In particular, case of desk research of digital media, branding and political image management such sources as databases, books, online magazines, different websites, and online-published articles, Canada's statistics were used. Desk research helped to determine the knowledge that is already recognized and what new data has to be collected to fulfil the research design.

Overview of Canada digital policy

In the age of data-as-an-economy, eCommerce, A.I, IoT, and smart cities, the government of Canada focuses its strategy on being "Digital First"The Information and Communications Technology Council (2018). "Feedback on the Direction for a New Government of Canada Digital Policy". Available at: https://www.ictc-ctic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ ICTC_Feedback_DigitalPolicy_Sep2018.pdf (accessed 10 August 2019).. Over the last two decades, digital media - including social media - have grown to become integral components of the political communication, mobilization, and organizing landscape in several countriesLalancette, M. and Raynauld, V. (2019). "The Power of Political Image: Justin Trudeau, Instagram, and Ce

lebrity Politics", American Behavioral Scientist, 63 (7), 888-924. DOI: 10.1177/0002764217744838. Available at:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321396251_The_Power_of_Political_Image_Justin_Trudeau_

Instagram_and_Celebrity_Politics (accessed July 27 2019)..

The growing use of the Internet and related digital technologies is creating a space for netwo rking individuals in ways that enable a new source of accountability in government, politics and other se c- tors. In the 21st Century, a new institution is emerging with some characteristics similar to the Fourth Estate, but with sufficiently distinctive and important features to warrant its recognition as a new Fifth Estate. Such `networks of networks' enable the networked individuals to move across, undermine and go beyond the boundaries of existing institutions, thereby opening new ways of increasing the accountability of politicians, press, experts and other loci of power and influence.Dutton, W. (2009). "The Fifth Estate Emerging through the Network of Networks", Prometheus, 27:1, 1-15,

DOI:10.1080/08109020802657453 Available at:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46527032_

The_Fifth_Estate_Emerging_Through_the_Network_of_Networks (accessed August 10 2019).

Recently, the government of Canada is known to have increased its use of paid Facebook comme r- cials, while spending tens of millions of dollars on boosted posts, videos and ad campaigns. It is worth citing the work of Hill, Akin and Cain (2020) where the authors highlight a growing government reliance on Facebook to promote events, and publicize key government messages as well as policy initiatives, "The Liberal Party of Canada was the most prolific spender, buying nearly $2.3 million in ads covering a wide range of topics, including calls for donations, surveys on political ideas, promoting the government's assault-style weapons ban and initiatives aimed at the middle class"Hill, B., Akin, D. and Cain, P. (2020). "As Facebook ad boycott intensifies, political parties continue to spend big". Global News, June 30. Available at: https://globalnews.ca/news/7126534/facebook-ad-boycott-political- parties-government-spending/ (accessed 22 October 2020).

Consequently, social media continues to play an important role in endearing voters to party leaders, from Twitter engagement to Facebook video posts. The journalists, for whom Twitter has become a very important tool, "risk inflating its importance and distorting what is actually happening online. The people who are politically active on Twitter and other social media sites tend to be the small subset of people who are already very interested in politics. They also like serving up party-approved talking points, but the risk of going off message is so great that meaningful dialogue is a rarity. The promise of connection and accountability that Twitter seems to offer turns out to be more illusion than reality"Basen, I. (2015). "Social media's significance oversold amid election hype". CBC News, October 18. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-social-media-1.3277007 (accessed 10 August 2019)..

The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that Canadian marketers keep in control u sers of social media in Canada, as well as which platform they visit most.

The Most Popular Social Media Networks in Canada

According to pooled data from various sources, McKinnon (2018) outlines a picture of social media use statistics in Canada. Such study sheds the light on how digital natives could be manipulated and guided by various networking platforms:

"Facebook 84% Twitter 42% Snapchat 22%

YouTube 59% Pinterest 38% Tumblr 11%

LinkedIn 46% Instagram 37% Reddit 9%"McKinnon, M. (2018). "Report: Canadian Social Media Use Statistics". Online Business Canada, March 1, 2018. Available at: https://canadiansinternet.com/2018-report-canadian-social-media-use-statistics/ (accessed 10 August 2019).

Of particular value for our study was the analytical research on how Trudeau's Instagram narrative shapes positive Canada's image, boosting his popularity, and enhancing the leader's image; furthe r- more, their extensively explored Trudeau's and his team great understanding of social media impact. "Trudeau knows the language of social media, knows how to use emojis and icons, and knows how to use photos and videos properly. Recent studies have shown that images can play a critical role when members of the public are evaluating politicians. Specifically, voters are looking for specific qualities in political leaders, including honesty, intelligence, friendliness, sincerity, and trustworthiness, when making electoral decisions. Image management techniques can help create the impression that polit i- cians possess these qualities."Lalancette, M. and Raynauld, V. (2017). "The Power of Political Image: Justin Trudeau, Instagram, and Celebrity Politics". American Behavioral Scientist. 63. 000276421774483. 10.1177/0002764217744838.

The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to conclude that Justin Trudeau - Prime Minister of Canada, referred to as the "first prime minister of the Instagram age" or the "King of the selfie"Lalancette, M. and Raynauld, V. (2017). Op. cit., and is hypothesized to be one of the forerunners in the field of political image management on visual-based social media. In an era of permanent campaigning and digital media and branding, it is useful to understand how politicians communicate with the public in a digital media environment where still and moving images are playing a growingly important role.

Justin Trudeau embraces social media to connect with Canadians -

"Thank you, Canada, for putting your trust in our team andfor having faith in us to move this country in the right direction. Regardless of how you cast your vote, our team will work hard for all Canadians "

According to a Canadian political analyst Marche (2019), "Trudeau has become an object lesson in the perils of `virocracy': It is in the nature of the social media left to destroy itself. There have been many, many scandals of this magnitude in Canadian political history. A ripple of tension between image and power has run throughout the Liberals' time in office. The truth is that t he self-immolation of the Trudeau government has been a long time coming. It's rooted in the way it came to power, through virtue optics and social media Trudeau is the master of the kind of celebrity progressivism. He proved that social media skills could win elections, too"Marche, S. (2019). The self-immolation of the Canadian government is rooted in the way it came to power.