DIGITAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND TIKTOK: SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF USER COMMENTS IN THE 2024 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Öz
Political communication can be defined as strategic communication with the aim of influencing the perceptions and attitudes of the target audience. Voters need information about the candidates they intend to support and election campaigns allow voters to share their opinions, suggestions and thoughts with politicians. During these periods, political parties tend to use mass media and digital media to provide voters with the information they may need. Today, TikTok as an important platform in the digital political communication process, it plays a critical role for politicians to interact with the target audience and shape public perception. This role also attracted attention during the United States of America (USA) presidential elections held on November 5, 2024. In this context, in this study, which focuses on the digital political communication process in the 2024 US presidential elections, the emotional distribution of public perception towards the Republican Party candidate Donald Trump and Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris, who competed in the election, was analyzed through the sentiment analysis method based on the comments made on the TikTok posts of the candidates. According to the research findings, comments on Donald Trump's posts are characterized by a positive emotional tone. However, deeper and more lasting interactions, such as feelings of support and loyalty and social/contextual comments, were observed to be limited. Although the comments on Kamala Harris are largely positive, the low level of loyalty and commitment of her supporters is noteworthy. As a noteworthy finding, it was observed that Trump supporters were more likely to comment with loyalty and commitment than Kamala Harris supporters. In conclusion, the social media interactions of both candidates provide a view of the emotional states of their supporters and how they interact in the social context.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Digital political communication, sentiment analysis, TikTok, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris.
Kaynakça
- Balcı, Ş., Kaya, E., Karadeniz, B., & Abaylı, H. (2020). Aday imajı oluşumunda etkili faktörler: “31 Mart 2019 Yerel Seçimleri örneği”. İletişim Kuram ve Araştırma Dergisi, 2020(50), 1-27.
- Benaissa Pedriza, S. (2021). Sources, channels and strategies of disinformation in the 2020 US election: Social networks, traditional media and political candidates. Journalism and Media, 2(4), 605-624.
- Bhandari, A., & Bimo, S. (2020). TikTok and the “algorithmized self”: A new model of online interaction. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. The 21st Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers
- Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (2001). The new media and our political communication discontents: Democratizing cyberspace. Information, Communication & Society, 4(1), 1-13.
- Bostancı, M. (2014). Siyasal iletişim 2.0. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi, 3(3, 51-58.
- Brooks, K. E., & Wellman, M. L. (2024). Voters-turned-political influencers: Social media users maintain popularity by cultivating support for 2020 US presidential election candidates. In Social Media Politics (pp. 134-153). London: Routledge.
- Bucknell Bossen, C., & Kottasz, R. (2020). Uses and gratifications sought by pre-adolescent and adolescent TikTok consumers. Young Consumers, 21(4), 463-478.
- Burchell, E. L. (2023). Algorithms, aesthetics and agency: An exploration into the performance of the self amongst young women on TikTok. re:think—a journal of creative ethnography, 4(1).
- Cervi, L., & Marín-Lladó, C. (2021). What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case. Profesional de la información, 30(4).
- Cervi, L., Tejedor, S., & Blesa, F. G. (2023). TikTok and political communication: The latest frontier of politainment? A case study. Media and Communication, 11(2), 203-217.