Av med masken! : En multimodal studie av representationen av Viktor Gyökeres på Instagram

This study examines how the professional footballer Viktor Gyökeres is represented on Instagram by four key actors. These are Gyökeres himself, his club Arsenal FC, his agent HCM Sports Management and the supporter driven media channel AFTV. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s social semiotic theory on visual representation, the study applies a multimodal analysis on 256 Instagram posts to investigate how visual, textual and auditory elements interact to produce an identity of the player. The findings show that Gyökeres is mainly represented as a successful, goal scoring and elite level footballer. Elements that support this is his reoccurring visual celebration, focused facial expressions along with textual elements such as star, excitement and perfect. While the overall image is largely consistent, notable differences emerge between actors as well. Gyökeres' own account focuses on him as both a player and a person, HCM focuses on commercial aspects and Gyökeres value, Arsenal focuses on integrating him as a part of the collective and lastly AFTV is the only account representing him in a somewhat negative manner and as a topic of discussion. Overall, the study shows how a professional footballer is represented by relevant actors on social media and how these actors differ based on their institutional positions and communicative interests. Instead of reflecting reality in a neutral way, these representations construct a dominant understanding of Gyökeres.