Strategies for TikTok Use by Brazilian Politicians

Introduction: The article explores how Brazilian politicians make use of TikTok’s affordances. We investigate the interactive devices and forms of engagement with their audiences. We differentiate the appropriation of the platform by right-wing and left-wing political profiles and analyze the language resources employed by politicians, such as choreographies, dubbing, participation in trends and other repertoires.

Materials and methods: From a database of about 23,000 videos published on TikTok by a set of 265 active profiles maintained by politicians, 378 posts were randomly selected. We performed a content analysis of this sample to identify the use of language resources and platform-specific features, such as vertical framing, filters, soundtrack and visual effects, among other aspects. The hypotheses tested were that (H1) these politicians tend not to incorporate popular resources and formats typical of TikTok; and (H2) they tend not to explore a playful language, essentially apolitical in nature, with references to entertainment.

Results: The results indicated that most of the content makes use of popular TikTok resources and formats, which contradicts H1. H2, on the other hand, was confirmed. In the observed sample, 65% of the videos published by these profiles use no playful element and make no reference to entertainment. Among content with an apolitical tone, 63% do not have this characteristic. In addition, 90.5% of the published content makes no effort to interact with audiences.

Discussion: The efficient use of TikTok as a strategic tool depends on understanding the dynamics of platform use. The study identified which strategies generate the most engagement on the network and how political actors have invested their efforts in some of these forms of engagement. Content featuring attacks and smear campaigns yields many comments, while apolitical content, such as dances and dubbing, usually yields more views and likes. The data may shed light on strategies for producing political content for digital platforms and point to discrepancies between the uses of these repertoires by left-wing and right-wing politicians.

Credits

Authors: Viktor Chagas e Luiza de Mello Stefano

How to cite this study

1
CHAGAS, V.; STEFANO, L. de M. Estratégias de uso do TikTok por políticos brasileiros. Revista de Sociologia e Política, v. 31, e022, 2023.