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Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns

Melanie Magin Orcid Logo, Uta Russmann Orcid Logo, Rossella Vulcano Orcid Logo, Felix-Christopher Von Nostitz Orcid Logo, Anna-Katharina Wurst Orcid Logo, Katjana Gattermann Orcid Logo, Laura Alonso-Muñoz Orcid Logo, Delia Cristina Balaban Orcid Logo, Paweł Baranowski Orcid Logo, Krisztina Burai Orcid Logo, Jean Claude Cachia Orcid Logo, Tomaž Deželan Orcid Logo, Michal Garaj Orcid Logo, Babette Hermans Orcid Logo, Konstantinos Kallinikos Orcid Logo, Elisa Kannasto Orcid Logo, Simon Kruschinski Orcid Logo, Georgios Lappas Orcid Logo, Sara Machado Orcid Logo, Alena Pospíšil Macková Orcid Logo, Anamaria Dutceac Segesten Orcid Logo, Ilva Skulte Orcid Logo, Milica Vučković Orcid Logo, Matthew Wall Orcid Logo

Media and Communication, Volume: 14, Start page: 11739

Swansea University Author: Matthew Wall Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.17645/mac.11739

Abstract

Social media platforms have become central arenas for election campaigning, pushing political actors to adapt to their attention‑driven logics. One prominent strategy is visual personalization, reflecting the platforms’ person‑centered, image‑driven design. This study offers the first large‑scale, c...

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Published in: Media and Communication
ISSN: 2183-2439
Published: Cogitatio Press 2026
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This study offers the first large&#x2011;scale, cross&#x2011;national analysis of how political parties across 23 EU countries strategically employed two dimensions of visual personalization&#x2014;individualization and privatization&#x2014;on Facebook during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign. It examines how their digital campaign output was shaped by two party&#x2011;level factors (populist vs. non&#x2011;populist status; government vs. opposition) and two country&#x2011;level factors (electoral systems; degree of authoritarianism). Based on a manual content analysis of 14,553 posts, we find that individualization was far more common than privatization and that party&#x2011;level characteristics exerted stronger influence than country&#x2011;level contexts. Populist and governing parties used more individualization. Privatization was more prevalent among non&#x2011;populist parties and in more liberal environments. 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spelling 2026-05-14T15:34:43.0210025 v2 71903 2026-05-14 Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns 22914658d586a5759d4d4b945ea140bd 0000-0001-8265-4910 Matthew Wall Matthew Wall true false 2026-05-14 SOSS Social media platforms have become central arenas for election campaigning, pushing political actors to adapt to their attention‑driven logics. One prominent strategy is visual personalization, reflecting the platforms’ person‑centered, image‑driven design. This study offers the first large‑scale, cross‑national analysis of how political parties across 23 EU countries strategically employed two dimensions of visual personalization—individualization and privatization—on Facebook during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign. It examines how their digital campaign output was shaped by two party‑level factors (populist vs. non‑populist status; government vs. opposition) and two country‑level factors (electoral systems; degree of authoritarianism). Based on a manual content analysis of 14,553 posts, we find that individualization was far more common than privatization and that party‑level characteristics exerted stronger influence than country‑level contexts. Populist and governing parties used more individualization. Privatization was more prevalent among non‑populist parties and in more liberal environments. These findings challenge assumptions about populist and authoritarian communication styles and make a theoretical contribution by demonstrating that visual personalization is a multidimensional phenomenon whose specific dimensions respond differently to structural incentives. Our results underscore the need to analytically separate individualization and privatization and to account for their distinct contextual drivers when assessing political personalization in digital environments. Journal Article Media and Communication 14 11739 Cogitatio Press 2183-2439 election campaigning; European Parliament; social media; visual personalization 14 5 2026 2026-05-14 10.17645/mac.11739 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee The International Visegrad Fund supported this article under project no. 22410053: EU Campaign Race in V4—Political Communication in Social Media before the 2024 EP Elections. Krisztina Burai’s research was supported by the Momentum program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA–ELTE TK Lendület “Momentum” PRISMA research project [LP2024‐2/2024]). Anna‐Katharina Wurst contributed as part of the junior research group DigiDeMo, funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and coordinated by the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt). Publication of this article in open access was made possible through the institutional membership agreement between the University of Innsbruck and Cogitatio Press. 2026-05-14T15:34:43.0210025 2026-05-14T15:13:28.0065017 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations Melanie Magin 0000-0003-2545-3594 1 Uta Russmann 0000-0002-8684-6976 2 Rossella Vulcano 0009-0006-1016-6225 3 Felix-Christopher Von Nostitz 0000-0001-7499-9564 4 Anna-Katharina Wurst 0000-0003-1371-7652 5 Katjana Gattermann 0000-0002-4258-3588 6 Laura Alonso-Muñoz 0000-0001-8894-1064 7 Delia Cristina Balaban 0000-0003-3509-533x 8 Paweł Baranowski 0000-0003-2916-4159 9 Krisztina Burai 0009-0009-1165-7263 10 Jean Claude Cachia 0000-0001-6030-8451 11 Tomaž Deželan 0000-0002-1625-2558 12 Michal Garaj 0000-0002-6103-9879 13 Babette Hermans 0009-0007-6297-781x 14 Konstantinos Kallinikos 0009-0001-3147-6736 15 Elisa Kannasto 0000-0003-1758-982x 16 Simon Kruschinski 0000-0002-3185-5656 17 Georgios Lappas 0000-0001-8428-2954 18 Sara Machado 0000-0001-8153-7747 19 Alena Pospíšil Macková 0000-0001-5967-5166 20 Anamaria Dutceac Segesten 0000-0001-7058-2040 21 Ilva Skulte 0000-0002-4589-6600 22 Milica Vučković 0000-0002-2841-8973 23 Matthew Wall 0000-0001-8265-4910 24 71903__36733__28de037112074a2d9ee59e65fa218225.pdf 71903.VOR.pdf 2026-05-14T15:20:10.1283958 Output 771270 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 by the author(s), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
title Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
spellingShingle Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
Matthew Wall
title_short Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
title_full Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
title_fullStr Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
title_full_unstemmed Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
title_sort Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns
author_id_str_mv 22914658d586a5759d4d4b945ea140bd
author_id_fullname_str_mv 22914658d586a5759d4d4b945ea140bd_***_Matthew Wall
author Matthew Wall
author2 Melanie Magin
Uta Russmann
Rossella Vulcano
Felix-Christopher Von Nostitz
Anna-Katharina Wurst
Katjana Gattermann
Laura Alonso-Muñoz
Delia Cristina Balaban
Paweł Baranowski
Krisztina Burai
Jean Claude Cachia
Tomaž Deželan
Michal Garaj
Babette Hermans
Konstantinos Kallinikos
Elisa Kannasto
Simon Kruschinski
Georgios Lappas
Sara Machado
Alena Pospíšil Macková
Anamaria Dutceac Segesten
Ilva Skulte
Milica Vučković
Matthew Wall
format Journal article
container_title Media and Communication
container_volume 14
container_start_page 11739
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 2183-2439
doi_str_mv 10.17645/mac.11739
publisher Cogitatio Press
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Social media platforms have become central arenas for election campaigning, pushing political actors to adapt to their attention‑driven logics. One prominent strategy is visual personalization, reflecting the platforms’ person‑centered, image‑driven design. This study offers the first large‑scale, cross‑national analysis of how political parties across 23 EU countries strategically employed two dimensions of visual personalization—individualization and privatization—on Facebook during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign. It examines how their digital campaign output was shaped by two party‑level factors (populist vs. non‑populist status; government vs. opposition) and two country‑level factors (electoral systems; degree of authoritarianism). Based on a manual content analysis of 14,553 posts, we find that individualization was far more common than privatization and that party‑level characteristics exerted stronger influence than country‑level contexts. Populist and governing parties used more individualization. Privatization was more prevalent among non‑populist parties and in more liberal environments. These findings challenge assumptions about populist and authoritarian communication styles and make a theoretical contribution by demonstrating that visual personalization is a multidimensional phenomenon whose specific dimensions respond differently to structural incentives. Our results underscore the need to analytically separate individualization and privatization and to account for their distinct contextual drivers when assessing political personalization in digital environments.
published_date 2026-05-14T06:42:00Z
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score 11.106

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