What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.jul.03

Keywords:

Political communication, Politics 2.0, Social networks, Social media, Affordances, Interaction, Politainment, Engagement, Political parties, TikTok, Spain

Abstract

TikTok, already widely used before the pandemic, boomed during the quarantine that locked down large parts of the world, reaching 2 billion downloads and 800 million monthly active users worldwide by the end of 2020. Of these 800 million users, 41% are aged between 16 and 24 years. This social network, widely known for its entertainment videos, is increasingly becoming a place for political discussion and therefore a unique opportunity for political actors to (re)connect with young people. Acknowledging that the political uses of TikTok are still understudied, this paper aims to explore whether and how Spanish political parties are including TikTok as part of their communication strategy. Through an affordance-centered content analysis of all the posts published by the five most important Spanish political parties (PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos, Podemos, and Vox), the current results show that, although all Spanish political parties have adopted this platform, their usage is unequal. From a quantitative perspective, PP was the first party to open a TikTok account, but its usage has been discontinuous; Podemos and Ciudadanos are the parties that publish the most and most constantly, while Vox has only published nine posts and the PSOE one. Nonetheless, from a qualitative perspective, Podemos and Vox generate more engagement and seem to understand and exploit TikTok´s specific affordances better. The findings allow it to be concluded that, although globally Spanish political parties do not fully exploit the platform´s affordances and tend to use it as a unilateral tool for promotion, the most engaging posts are those favoring interaction and geared toward politainment.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Aalberg, Tori; Strí¶mbí¤ck, Jasper; De-Vreese, Claes H. (2012). "The framing of politics as strategy and game: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings". Journalism, v. 2, pp. 162-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911427799

Abejón-Mendoza, Paloma; Carrasco-Polaino, Rafael; Garralón, Miguel L. (2019). "Efecto de los post en Facebook de los principales candidatos españoles en las elecciones generales de 2016 sobre la polarización de la sociedad". Historia y comunicación social, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 599-613. https://doi.org/10.5209/hics.66302

Abuí­n-Vences, Natalia; Garcí­a-Rosales, Daniel-Francisco (2020). "Elecciones generales de 2019 en Twitter: eficacia de las estrategias comunicativas y debates televisados como motor del discurso social". El profesional de la información, v. 29, n. 2, e290213. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.mar.13

Alonso-Muñoz, Laura; Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2018). "Political agenda on Twitter during the 2016 Spanish elections: issues, strategies, and users´ responses". Communication & society, v. 3, n. 3, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.31.3.7-23

Anderson, Katie-Elson (2020). "Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: it is time to talk about TikTok". Library hi tech news, v. 37, n. 4, pp. 7-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2020-0001

Baldwin-Philippi, Jessica (2015). Using technology, building democracy. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0 190231910

Ballesteros-Herencia, Carlos A. (2020). "La propagación digital del coronavirus: Midiendo el engagement del entretenimiento en la red social emergente TikTok". Revista española de comunicación en salud, Suplemento 1, pp. 171-185. https://doi.org/10.20318/recs.2020.5459

Barrio, Fernando (2021). "Twitch más allá de los videojuegos: periodistas y politicos se abren espacio". El independiente. https://www.elindependiente.com/futuro/gadget/2021/01/27/twitch-mas-alla-de-los-videojuegos-periodistas-y-politicos-se-abren-espacio

Berrocal-Gonzalo, Salomé; Campos-Domí­nguez, Eva; Redondo-Garcí­a, Marta (2014). "Prosumidores mediáticos en la comunicación polí­tica: el "˜politainment´ en YouTube". Comunicar, v. 22, n. 43, pp. 65-72. https://doi.org/10.3916/C43-2014-06

Bianchi, Leonardo (2020). "Salvini è il re del cringe su TikTok, ma è pure l´unico politico italiano a stare lí¬". Vice, 15 gennaio. https://www.vice.com/it/article/jgem87/salvini-su-tiktok

Bickerton, Christopher J.; Invernizzi-Accetti, Carlo (2018). ""˜Techno-populism´ as a new party family: the case of the Five Star Movement and Podemos". Contemporary Italian politics, v. 2, n. 10, pp. 132-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2018.1472919

Bimber, Bruce (2014). "Digital media in the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012: Adaptation to the personalized political communication environment". Journal of information technology & politics, v. 11, n. 2, pp. 130-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.895691

Blumenthal, Sidney (1980). The permanent campaign: Inside the world of elite political operatives. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. ISBN: 978 0 807032084

Bossetta, Michael (2018). "The digital architectures of social media: Comparing political campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 US election". Journalism & mass communication quarterly, v. 95, n. 2, pp. 471-496. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018763307

Bucher, Taina; Helmond, Anne (2018). "The affordances of social media platforms". In: The SAGE handbook of social media, pp. 233-253. Sage. ISBN: 978 1 412962292 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473984066

Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2018). "Research on political information and social media: Key points and challenges for the future". El profesional de la información, v. 27, n. 5, pp. 964-974. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.sep.01

Cervi, Laura (2021). "TikTok and Generation Z". Theatre, dance and performance training, v. 12, n. 2, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2021.1915617

Cervi, Laura (2020). "Exclusionary Populism and Islamophobia: A comparative analysis of Italy and Spain". Religions, v. 11, 516. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11100516

Cervi, Laura; Roca-Trenchs, Núria (2018). "El uso de Twitter por parte de los principales candidatos en las campañas electorales para las elecciones generales españolas: 2011 y 2015. ¿Brecha digital y generacional?". Doxa comunicación, v. 26, pp. 99-126. http://hdl.handle.net/10637/9459

Cervi, Laura; Roca-Trenchs, Núria (2017a). "Towards an Americanization of political campaigns? The use of Facebook and Twitter for campaigning in Spain, USA and Norway". Anàlisi, n. 56, pp. 87-100. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/analisi.3072

Cervi, Laura; Roca-Trenchs, Núria (2017b). "La modernización de la campaña electoral para las elecciones generales de España en 2015. ¿Hacia la americanización?". Comunicación y hombre, n. 13, pp. 133-150. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=129449617007

Cesarino, Leticia (2020). "Como vencer uma eleií§í£o sem sair de casa: a ascensí£o do populismo digital no Brasil". Internet & sociedade, v. 1, n. 1, pp. 91-120. https://revista.internetlab.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Como-vencer-uma-eleic%CC%A7a%CC%83o-sem-sair-de-casa.pdf

Chadwick, Andrew (2017). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0 199759477

Chen, Qiang; Min, Chen; Zhang, Wei; Xiaoyue, Ma; Evans, Richard (2021). "Factors driving citizen engagement with government TikTok accounts during the covid-19 pandemic: Model development and analysis". Journal of medical internet reseach, v. 23, n. 2, e21463. https://doi.org/10.2196/21463

Cid, Guillermo (2020). "´Baja un dedo si eres de derechas´. La oscura guerra polí­tica que viven tus hijos en TikTok". El confidencial, 24 junio. https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/2020-06-24/tiktok-politica-vox-trump-Podemos-redes-sociales_2649867

Cohen, Jacob (1960). "A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales". Educational and psychological measurement, v. 20, n. 1, pp. 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000104

Dekavalla, Marina (2016). "Issue and game frames in the news: Frame-building factors in television coverage of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum". Journalism, v. 19, n. 11, pp. 1588-1607. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916674231

Dimitrova, Daniela V.; Matthes, Jí¶rg (2018). "Social media in political campaigning around the world: Theoretical and methodological challenges". Journalism & mass communication quarterly, v. 95, n. 2, pp. 333-342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018770437

Dolezal, Martin (2015). "Online campaigning by Austrian political candidates: Determinants of using personal websites, Facebook, and Twitter". Policy and internet, v. 7, n. 1, pp. 103-119. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.83

Ekstrí¶m, Mats; Sveningsson, Malin (2019). "Young people´s experiences of political membership: from political parties to Facebook groups". Information, communication & society, v. 22, n. 2, pp. 155-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1358294

Enli, Gunn; Naper, Anja Aaheim (2016). "Social media incumbent advantage: Barack Obama´s and Mitt Romney´s tweets in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election campaign". In: Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Eli Skogerbí¸, Anders-Olof Larsson, Christian Christensen (eds.). The Routledge companion to social media and politics. New York: Routledge, pp. 39-55. ISBN: 978 1 138300934

Enli, Gunn; Rosenberg, Linda-Therese (2018). "Trust in the age of social media: Populist politicians seem more authentic". Social media + society, v. 4, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118764430

Gainous, Jason; Wagner, Kevin M. (2014). Tweeting to power: The social media revolution in American politics. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0 199965076

Garcí­a-Ortega, Carmela; Zugasti-Azagra, Ricardo (2018). "Gestión de la campaña de las elecciones generales de 2016 en las cuentas de Twitter de los candidatos: entre la autorreferencialidad y la hibridacioÌn mediaÌtica". El profesional de la informacioÌn, v. 27, n. 6, pp. 1215-1224. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.05

Gerbaudo, Paolo (2018). "Social media and populism: An elective affinity?". Media, culture & society, v. 40, n. 5, pp. 745-753. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718772192

Gómez-Garcí­a, Salvador; Gil-Torres, Alicia; Carrillo-Vera, José-Agustí­n; Navarro-Sierra, Nuria (2019). "Constructing Donald Trump: Mobile apps in the political discourse about the President of the United States". Comunicar, n. 59, pp. 49-59. https://doi.org/10.3916/C59-2019-05

Groshek, Jacob; Engelbert, Jiska (2013). "Double differentiation in a cross-national comparison of populist political movements and online media uses in the United States and the Netherland". New media & society, v. 15, n. 2, pp. 183-202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812450685

Guinaudeau, Benjamin; Vottax, Fabio; Munger, Kevin (2020). Fifteen seconds of fame: TikTok and the democratization of mobile video on social media. Working paper.

Gutiérrez-Rubí­, Antoni; Peytibi, Xavier (2016). Snapchat y polí­tica. Transformando la comunicación social. Editorial Bebookness. ISBN: 978 84 608 1400 9

Hopster, Jeroen (2020). "Mutual affordances: the dynamics between social media and populism". Media, culture & society, v. 43, n. 3, pp. 551-560. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720957889

Jivkova-Semova, Dimitrina; Requeijo-Rey, Paula; Padilla-Castillo, Graciela (2017). "Usos y tendencias de Twitter en la campaña a elecciones generales españolas del 20D de 2015: hashtags que fueron trending topic". El profesional de la información, v. 26, n. 5, pp. 824-837. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.sep.05

Jungherr, Andreas (2016). "Twitter use in election campaigns: A systematic literature review". Journal of information technology & politics, v. 13, n. 1, pp. 72-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2015.1132401

Kastrenakes, Jacob (2020). AOC´s debut Twitch stream is one of the biggest ever. https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/20/21526164/aoc-among-us-twitch-debut-top-concurrent-viewers

Kennedy, Melanie (2020). ""˜If the rise of the TikTok dance and e-girl aesthetic has taught us anything, it´s that teenage girls rule the internet right now´: TikTok celebrity, girls and the coronavirus crisis". European journal of cultural studies, v. 23, n. 6, pp. 1069-1076. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420945341

Klinger, Ulrike; Svensson, Jakob (2016) "Network media logic: Some conceptual considerations". In: Bruns, A.; Enli, G.; Skogerbo, E.; Larsson, A. O.; Christensen, C. (eds.). The Routledge companion to social media and politics. New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 23-38. ISBN: 978 1 138300934

Koleson, Jenna (2020). "TikTok is on the clock, will democracy stop?". SLU law journal online, n. 45. https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lawjournalonline/45

Koopmans, Ruud; Statham, Paul (2010). The making of a European public sphere. Media discourse and political contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978 0 521138253

Kreiss, Daniel; Lawrence, Regina G.; McGregor, Shannon C. (2018). "In their own words: Political practitioner accounts of candidates, audiences, affordances, genres, and timing in strategic social media use". Political communication, v. 35, n. 1, pp. 8-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334727

Larsson, Anders-Olof (2016). "Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook". New media & society, v. 18, n. 2, pp. 274-292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814538798

Lilleker, Darren G.; Vedel, Thierry (2013). "The internet in campaigns and elections". In: William H. Dutton (ed.), The Oxford handbook of internet studies, pp. 401-420. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0199589074

Literat, Ioana; Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta (2019). "Youth collective political expression on social media: The role of affordances and memetic dimensions for voicing political views". New media & society, v. 21, n. 9, pp. 1988-2009. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819837571

López-Meri, Amparo; Marcos-Garcí­a, Silvia; Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2020). "Estrategias comunicativas en Facebook: personalización y construcción de comunidad en las elecciones de 2016 en España". Doxa comunicación, n. 30, pp. 229-248. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n30a12

López-Meri, Amparo; Marcos-Garcí­a, Silvia; Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2017). "What do politicians do on Twitter? Functions and communication strategies in the Spanish electoral campaign of 2016". El profesional de la información, v. 26, n. 5, pp. 795-804. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.sep.02

Manfredi-Sánchez, Juan-Luis; Amado-Suárez, Adriana; Waisbord, Silvio (2021). "Presidential Twitter in the face of Covid-19: Between populism and pop politics". Comunicar, n. 66, pp. 83-94. https://doi.org/10.3916/C66-2021-07

Mazzoleni, Gianpietro; Sfardini, Anna (2009): Politica pop. Da "˜porta a porta´ a "˜L´isola dei famosi´. Bologna: Il Mulino. ISBN: 978 88 15 13273 4

Medina-Serrano, Juan-Carlos; Papakyriakopoulos, Orestis; Hegelich, Simon (2020). "Dancing to the partisan beat: A first analysis of political communication on TikTok". In: 12th ACM Conference on web science, July 7-10, Southampton, UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA.

Metz, Manon; Kruikemeier, Sanne; Lecheler, Sophie (2020). "Personalization of politics on Facebook: examining the content and effects of professional, emotional and private self-personalization". Information, communication & society, v. 23, n. 10, pp. 1481-1498. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1581244

Miquel-Segarra, Susana; López-Meri, Amparo; Viounnikoff-Benet, Nadia (2020). "Engagement entre polí­ticos y seguidores en Facebook. El caso de las elecciones generales de 2016 en España". Obra digital, n. 19, pp. 61-79. https://doi.org/10.25029/od.2020.251.19

Mirchandani, Maya (2020). "Populisme, propagande et politique: les réseaux sociaux au cÅ“ur de la stratégie électorale de Narendra Modi". Hérodote, n. 177-178, pp. 59-76. https://doi.org/10.3917/her.177.0059

Moeller, Judith; De-Vreese, Claes; Esser, Frank; Kunz, Ruth (2014). "Pathway to political participation: The influence of online and offline news media on internal efficacy and turnout of first-time voters". American behavioral scientist, v. 58, n. 5, pp. 689-700. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213515220

Nahon, Karine (2016). "Where there is social media there is politics". In: Bruns, Axel; Enli, Gunn; Skogerbí¶, E.; Larsson, Anders; Christensen, Christian (eds.). Routledge companion to social media and politics. New York: Routledge, pp. 39-55. ISBN: 978 1 138300934

O´Connor, Cliodhna; Joffe, Helene (2020). "Intercoder reliability in qualitative research: debates and practical guidelines". International journal of qualitative methods, v. 19, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919899220

Omnicore (2020). TikTok by the numbers: Stats, demographics & fun facts. Omnicore, 12 February. https://www.omnicoreagency.com/tiktok-statistics

Papacharissi, Zizi (2015). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0 199999743

Pineda, Antonio; Bellido-Pérez Elena; Barragán-Romero, Ana (2020). "Backstage moments during the campaign: The interactive use of Instagram by Spanish political leaders". New media & society, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820972390

Piñeiro-Otero, Teresa; Martí­nez-Rolán, Xabier (2020). "Para comprender la polí­tica digital - Principios y acciones". Vivat academia, n. 152, pp. 19-48. https://doi.org/10.15178/va.2020.152.19-48

Quinlan, Stephen; Gummer, Tobias; RoíŸmann, Joss; Wolf, Christof (2018). "Show me the money and the party! - Variation in Facebook and Twitter adoption by politicians" Information, communication & society, v. 21, n. 8, pp. 1031-1049. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1301521

Rahat, Gideon; Sheafer, Tamir (2007). "The personalization (s) of politics: Israel, 1949-2003". Political communication, v. 24, n. 1, pp. 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600601128739

Ramí­rez-Gil, Marta; Gómez-de-Travesedo-Rojas, Ruth (2020). "Gestión de la polí­tica española en YouTube: Una asignatura pendiente". Observatorio, v. 14, n. 1, pp. 22-44. http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/1491

Sampietro, Agnese; Sánchez-Castillo, Sebastián (2020). "Building a political image on Instagram: A study of the personal profile of Santiago Abascal (Vox) in 2018". Communication & society, v. 33, n. 1, pp. 169-184. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.33.1.169-184

Selva-Ruiz, David; Caro-Castaño, Lucí­a (2017). "Uso de Instagram como medio de comunicación polí­tica por parte de los diputados españoles: la estrategia de humanización en la "vieja" y la "nueva" polí­tica". El profesional de la información, v. 26, n. 5, pp. 903-915. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.sep.12

Simpson, Ellen; Semaan, Bryan (2021). "´For you, or for you´? Everyday LGBTQ+ encounters with TikTok". Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction 4, CSCW3, pp. 1-34. https://dl.acm.org/toc/pacmhci/2021/4/CSCW3

Stier, Sebastian; Bleier, Arnim; Lietz, Haiko; Strohmaier, Markus (2018). "Election campaigning on social media: Politicians, audiences, and the mediation of political communication on Facebook and Twitter". Political communication, v. 35, n. 1, pp. 50-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334728

Suau-Gomila, Guillem (2020). "Microblogging electoral: la estrategia comunicativa de Podemos y Ciudadanos en Twitter en las campañas electorales del 20D y el 26J". Prisma social, n. 28, pp. 103-126. https://revistaprismasocial.es/article/view/3389

Suau-Gomila, Guillem; Pont-Sorribes, Carles (2019). "Microblogging electoral: los usos de Twitter de Podemos y Ciudadanos y sus lí­deres Pablo Iglesias y Albert Rivera en las elecciones generales españolas de 2016". Estudios sobre el mensaje periodí­stico, v. 25, n. 2, pp. 1121-1139. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.64829

Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J. (2019). "Selfies, policies, or votes? Political party use of Instagram in the 2015 and 2016 Spanish general elections". Social media + society, v. 5, n. 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119826129

Van-Aelst, Peter; Sheafer, Tamir; Stanyer, James (2012). "The personalization of mediated political communication: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings". Journalism, v. 13, n. 2, pp. 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911427802

Van-Dijck, José; Poell, Thomas (2013). "Understanding social media logic". Media and communication, v. 1, n. 1, pp. 2-14. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v1i1.70

Vasko; Vidar; Trilling, Damian (2019). "A permanent campaign? Tweeting differences among members of Congress between campaign and routine periods". Journal of information technology & politics, v. 16, n. 4, pp. 342-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1657046

Vergeer, Maurice; Hermans, Liesbeth; Cunha, Carlos (2013). "Web campaigning in the 2009 European Parliament elections: A cross-national comparative analysis". New media and society, v. 15, n. 1, pp. 128-148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812457337

Vergeer, Maurice; Hermans, Liesbeth; Sams, Steven (2013). "Online social networks and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new campaign tool and a new campaign style". Party politics, v. 19, n. 3, pp. 477-501. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068811407580

Vijay, Darsana; Gekker, Alex (2021). "Playing politics: How Sabarimala played out on TikTok". American behavioral scientist, v. 65, n. 5, pp. 712-734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221989769

Zarouali, Brahim; Dobber, Tom; De-Pauw, Guy; De-Vreese, Claes (2020). "Using a personality-profiling algorithm to investigate political microtargeting: Assessing the persuasion effects of personality-tailored ads on social media". Communication research, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650220961965

Zheng, Yingqin; Yu, Ai (2016). "Affordances of social media in collective action: the case of Free Lunch for Children in China". Information systems journal, v. 26, pp. 289-313. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12096

Zhu, Yumei (2020). "The expectation of TikTok in international media: A critical discourse analysis". Open journal of social sciences, v. 8, pp. 136-148. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2020.812012

Downloads

Published

2021-07-05

How to Cite

Cervi, L., & Marí­n-Lladó, C. (2021). What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case. Profesional De La información, 30(4). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.jul.03