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‘Yes We Vote’. Civic Mobilisation and Impulsive Engagement on Instagram During the 2014 Romanian Election
A. Adi
1
, R. Gerodimos
2
, D. Lilleker
2
1
Quadriga University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
2
Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Studies of political participation via social media have tended to focus more on Facebook and Twitter, as well as big data approaches to understand con‑
nective action. This study focuses on a relatively small sample of posts to Instagram relating to the Romanian election of 2014. A number of Romanian
Instagrammers used the platform during the second round of the Presidential voting as a vehicle for protest, taking images and making statements such as
‘yes we vote’following suspicions that the diaspora had been prevented voting in sufficient numbers in order that incumbent presidentVictor Ponta secured
victory. Studying the images uploaded we find that a loose collective impulsively posted symbolic images in order to display their national identity and
show solidarity with one another as they queued to vote. The live record keeping was, at that moment, a feature of daily life for these Romanians, fitting
with a suite of other actions that fits to a paradigm of self-actualisation. The protest was largely a positive display of voting, with some insults aimed at
Ponta, but lacked a coherent political platform. Like recording attendance at a concert, Romanian Instagrammers came together in the moment and ap‑
peared to be a hashtag-connected movement but in reality were disparate joiners of a‘me too’culture recording their participation then stepping back into
the mundanity of the everyday.