The Personification of Present Mediated Political Communication

In recent decades, the political game in democratic societies has become increasingly personalized. The weakening of the role of parties as representatives of public interests is caused by the influence of personification, which in turn is facilitated by the growing importance of social media. Personalization is largely manifested in the period of election campaigns, since the electorate chooses specific individuals based on the image of a politician recreated in the media. Thus, the purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis about the increasing role of social media and the personification of the political game during election campaigns. The author chose bibliography analysis and content analysis as the research method. The author analyzed the profiles in social networks of candidates for deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the city of St. Petersburg, nominated by the electoral association "St. Petersburg regional branch of the All-Russian party "Unity and Fatherland" - "United Russia". Based on the analysis of the social media profiles of the candidates under consideration, the hypothesis put forward has not been confirmed. The paper concludes that the key factor in the personification of political discourse in the media is political competition. In the absence of political competition, politicians lose their incentives to disclose personalized information and form a positive image of a person in social media. The practical significance of the work for representatives of the political community lies in the fact that in order to increase public loyalty to the dominant party and trust in the activities of political leaders, politicians at all levels of government need to conduct a competent policy in social networks, based on the experience of democratic countries.