Rola mediów społecznościowych w procesie budowania wizerunku kobiet prezydentów miast na przykładzie serwisu Facebook

Abstract

The contemporary image of a female politician is no longer perceived through her attractiveness (which, however, can be decisive in election process), but through her education, knowledge, and professional experience. A much higher level of engagement is expected from female politicians than from their male counterparts, therefore achieving success might be difficult. This situation demands a much more active approach in creating an image in order to indicate to the electors that women are able to fulfill the most important duties at all levels of political power due to their level of education, knowledge and higher personal engagement. Creating an image requires a systematic effort to design and to highlight some elements of identity, taking advantage of public relations and marketing, that will gain the acceptance of the voters. The power of the Internet in public sphere, and it’s significance in marketing actions has led to social media being widely employed in the image building process. For female city mayors, who broadcast their activities on their public accounts, social media has become a form of image creation. The analysis produced below focuses on the process of image building on Facebook for the female city mayors of the Łódź Voivodeship during the local government election campaign of 2014.