La self-personalization dei leader politici su Twitter. Tra professionalizzazione e intimizzazione

The study focuses on the personalization strategies of political leaders on Twitter, in order to verify how the dimensions of personalization of politics typical of television setting are adapted in the new digital habitat. Following the selection of specific indicators the research analyses the tweets produced by the main Italian leaders over a year and a half. The multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) has identified three specific self personalization strategies: (i) Professional Leader, (ii) Intimate Persona, (iii) Intimate Leader, which have been related with the average of the likes received. The results confirmed that the adoption of personalized strategies is now part of the leaders’ communicative preferences particularly through messages aimed at presenting their most intimate and personal side. At the same time, the research showed the users’ preferences for these strategies aimed at strengthening the sense (or illusion) of greater intimacy with the politician. From this perspective the study also allows to understand the meaning that arenas like Twitter offer to the process of “shortening the distances” between citizens and political representatives. In this regard, we point out that the transition from TV to social media further accentuates personalization, giving politicians entire control over their self-disclosure activities