Date of Award
Spring 5-12-2021
Document Type
Honors Project
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Communication and Digital Studies
Department Chair or Program Director
Rao, Anand
First Advisor
Crosby, Emily
Major or Concentration
Communication and Digital Studies
Abstract
There is a gap in research about political discourse taking place on the social media platform TikTok. Traditionally, the public saw this platform as trivial and less important than other platforms because of its young user base. With the increase of political videos on this platform within the past few years, scholars are now beginning to observe this platform more seriously. This study aims to recognize how TikTok influences political discourse. A content analysis examined 500 videos under the hashtags, “politics” (10.0 B views), “conservative” (6.9 B views), “republican” (7.0 B views), “Trump” (7.2 B views) “democrat” (4.2 B views) and “leftist” (2.3 B views). The researcher made two accounts to engage with left-leaning and right-leaning videos separately. The results showed that creators on the platform made videos that lead to the further polarization of political parties. The results also suggest that TikTok’s algorithm creates online echo chambers, leading to users becoming radicalized on either side of the political spectrum.
Recommended Citation
Carson, Devin, "A Content Analysis of Political Discourse on TikTok" (2021). Student Research Submissions. 415.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/415