THE POLITICAL IMAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD REGION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN: TRANSFORMATION VS STABILITY

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of the network political image of one of the regional leaders of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The main goal of the study is to compare the symbolic and semantic content of the image of a political leader during the pre-election and inter-election periods of his activity. As an example, the image of G.S. Nikitin, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, is analyzed. Based on the postulates of the information society theory, and using qualitative and quantitative content analysis, there is a studying of the news messages posted on the Internet site of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod region, which mention the head of the regional executive power. The sample size are 89 news messages posted between May 3 and September 3, 2023, shortly before the gubernatorial elections (September 8-10, 2023). The semantic unit of analytical observation has been become due to the image-role construct, which is a relevant tool for analyzing the political image. The results of the current paper are compared with the results of a previous similar study, which has examined the image of the head of the region in an earlier period of time (November 27, 2021 - June 9, 2022). The results of the study have demonstrated the preservation of the positions of the two most frequently used image-role constructs in the content of the image of a political leader - «business executive» and «team player». Thus, it has been concluded that the content of the image of the head of the region consistently, over different time periods, shows an emphasis on his focus on development in the field of industry and business, resolving issues related to the functioning of various regional infrastructure, as well as on intensive interaction with representatives of federal authorities and heads of other constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Keywords:

ELECTIONS, ELECTION CAMPAIGN, POLITICAL IMAGE, INFORMATION SOCIETY, POLITICAL COMMUNICATION, IMAGE-ROLE CONSTRUC