TikTok use in municipal elections: from candidate-majors to influencer-politicians

TikTok is without any doubt the most successful social network among Gen Zers and, consequently, is increasingly becoming their preferred place to discuss, share opinions, rally around social issues, and express political alignments. Accordingly, both politicians and political parties around the world are joining the platform to connect with young voters: previous exploratory studies, however, have shown that most political actors struggle to adapt to the platform's affordances, appearing cringy, out of touch, or simply using TikTok as an «old medium», without utilizing it to enhance interaction with citizens. This article contributes to the emerging stream of literature looking at the political uses of this platform in electoral campaigns by studying its application in a local election, focusing on how Ada Colau, candidate mayor for the 2023 Barcelona Municipal elections, has integrated TikTok in her communication strategy. Applying an affordance-based multimodal content analysis of all the tiktoks posted during the campaign, the paper discloses that, although not fully exploiting the platform's affordances -in particular its participatory potential- the candidate optimally adapts to its vernaculars and cultural environment, constructing a highly recognizable personal style, which seems to borrow and implement the marketing techniques used by influencers and internet celebrities. Therefore, the study concludes that Ada Colau can be considered an example of a new category of celebrity politician, the «influencer-politician», suggesting that future research should dig deeper into this novel dynamic of hybridization and cross-pollination between politics and digital cultures.TikTok es la red social de mayor éxito entre la llamada Generación Z y se está convirtiendo en su lugar preferido para debatir, compartir opiniones sobre temas sociales y expresar su posicionamiento político. Por consecuente, los políticos quieren usar la plataforma para conectar con los jóvenes: sin embargo, estudios anteriores han demostrado que la mayoría de los actores políticos tienen dificultades para adaptarse a las posibilidades de la plataforma, pareciendo fuera de lugar o utilizando TikTok como un «viejo medio», sin aprovecharlo para mejorar la interacción con los ciudadanos. Este artículo contribuye a la corriente académica que estudia los usos políticos de esta plataforma en las campañas electorales analizando su aplicación en unas elecciones locales, centrándose en cómo Ada Colau, candidata a la alcaldía en las elecciones municipales de Barcelona 2023, ha integrado TikTok en su estrategia de comunicación. A través de un análisis de contenido multimodal basado en las affordances de los tiktoks publicados durante la campaña, se revela que, aunque no explote plenamente las affordances de la plataforma -en particular su potencial participativo-, la candidata se adapta de forma óptima a este entorno tecnológico y cultural, construyendo un estilo personal altamente reconocible, que parece replicar las técnicas de marketing utilizadas por los influencers y las Internet celebrities. El estudio concluye que Ada Colau puede considerarse un ejemplo de una nueva categoría de político, el «influencer-político», sugiriendo que futuras investigaciones profundicen en esta novedosa dinámica de hibridación y mutua polinización entre la política y las culturas digitales

Exclusionary populism and islamophobia : a comparative analysis of Italy and Spain

Exclusionary populism is well known for twisting real grievances of the citizens, by problematizing the gap between "us" and "them", capitalizing on identity lines, calling out as "others" those who do not share "pure people's" identity and culture. Especially after 9/11, Muslims have become the ideal-type of "other", making Islamophobia the primary populist anti-paradigm. This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on Islamophobic populism analyzing the presence of Islamophobia in the electoral discourse of Vox party in Spain and Lega in Italy. In addition, it makes a novel contribution by discussing and testing the existence of different models of Islamophobia, distinguishing between "banal Islamophobia" and "ontological Islamophobia". Applying clause-based semantic text analysis-including qualitative and quantitative variables-to thirty speeches by the two party leaders, Santiago Abascal and Matteo Salvini, during the last three elections (General, Regional and European), the paper concludes that, despite the similarities, the two politician display two different models of Islamophobia. Whereas Abascal displays a clear "ontological Islamophobia", depicting Muslims ontologically incompatible with Spanish civilization (defined precisely by its anti-Muslim history), the latter presents a mix of arguments that oscillate between "ontological" and "banal" Islamophobia

Slični političari, drukčiji mediji: medijski tretman seks-skandala u Italiji i SAD-u

The article analyzes the media treatment of two sex scandals: the “Stormy Daniels scandal”, which involved the current US President Donald Trump in 2018 and the “Ruby scandal”, which involved Silvio Berlusconi in 2010, while he was Italy’s Prime Minister. By combining both quantitative and qualitative methodologies the aim is to discover whether the media treatment is different, as we can expect since the two countries belong to two different media systems, or if, following the theory of Americanization of political communication, the Italian media will tend to emulate the American model. Furthermore, another aim of this study is to detect whether a shift towards a more Polarized Pluralist model can be identified in the USA, as some authors have started foreseeing. The results will show that both countries’ media behave coherently with the traditional feature of their media system, the Polarized Pluralist and the Liberal.Ovaj rad analizira medijski tretman dvaju seks-skandala: skandala „Stormy Daniels“ iz 2018. u koji je bio uključen sadašnji predsjednik SAD-a Donald Trump i skandala „Ruby“ u kojem je sudjelovao Silvio Berlusconi 2010. dok je bio talijanski premijer. U radu se koriste kvantitativne i kvalitativne metode, a cilj je otkriti je li medijski tretman navedenih događaja drukčiji, što očekujemo s obzirom na to da dvije zemlje pripadaju dvama različitim medijskim sustavima, te može li se očekivati, na tragu teorije amerikanizacije političke komunikacije, da bi talijanski mediji mogli biti skloni imitiranju američkog modela. Nadalje, drugi cilj ove studije jest otkriti može li se zaokret prema tzv. polariziranom pluralističkom (talijanskom) modelu pronaći u SAD-u, kako su pojedini autori počeli predviđati. Rezultati su pokazali da se mediji u obje zemlje drže svojih tradicionalnih načina tretiranja događaja koji zanimaju javnost

¿Hacia la americanización de las campañas electorales? El uso de Facebook y Twitter en España, Estados Unidos y Noruega

La primera victòria electoral d’Obama va demostrar que, per guanyar unes eleccions, cal tenir presència a les xarxes socials: és innegable que a la majoria dels països desenvolupats les campanyes en línia estan reemplaçant les campanyes tradicionals.Molts acadèmics ja parlen d’una americanització de la política i assumeixen que en les campanyes electorals els partits polítics i els candidats dels països més democratitzats copien les estratègies i les eines que s’utilitzen als Estats Units. No obstant això, les característiques intrínseques dels sistemes polítics i les peculiaritats de la cultura política de cada país poden influir en la manera d’utilitzar les xarxes socials en les campanyes electorals. Per mesurar com tots aquests factors poden ser determinants en les campanyes electorals, analitzem com els candidats van utilitzar les xarxes socials més populars, Facebook i Twitter, en tres països diferents, amb un sistema polític, electoral i de partits diferent i també una cultura política diferent: Espanya (2011), EUA (2012) i Noruega (2013).L’anàlisi conclou que, si bé les campanyes electorals dels països més democratitzats cada cop s’assemblen més, el sistema i la cultura política de cada país encara influeixen en la qualitat de les campanyes electorals i en les estratègies que es despleguen durant el període electoral. The first Obama’s victory proved to the world that in order to win a campaign social networks are essential: it is undeniable that in almost all the “developed” countries on line campaigns are (more or less) slowly but inexorably replacing actual campaigns.For this reason, on the one hand many authors talk about the “Americanization of political campaigns”, assuming that somehow all the western countries are going into the direction taken by President Obama, and on the other hand, actually many campaigns throughout the world appear to be clearly Obama-inspired. Nevertheless we assume that both the characteristics of political systems and the peculiarities of different political cultures have an impact on the use of on line tools. In order to measure to which extent these factors influence the importance and the structure of on line campaigning, we will analyze how candidates used the two most important social networks, Facebook and Twitter, in three different countries representing three models of political, electoral and party system, in three different respective campaigns: Spain (2011), USA (2012) and Norway (2013).Through the analysis, we will be able to conclude that actually both political system and political culture still exercise a great influence on the amount of Internet campaigning, on the quality of campaigns themselves and on the strategies applied. La primera victoria electoral de Obama demostró que, para ganar unas elecciones, es necesario tener presencia en las redes sociales: es innegable que en la mayoría de los países desarrollados las campañas en línea están reemplazando a las campañas tradicionales.Muchos académicos ya hablan de una americanización de la política y asumen que en las campañas electorales los partidos políticos y los candidatos de todos los países copian las estrategias y las herramientas que se utilizan en Estados Unidos. No obstante, las características intrínsecas de los sistemas políticos y las peculiaridades de la cultura política de cada país pueden influir en la manera de utilizar las redes sociales en las campañas electorales. Para medir lo determinantes que pueden ser todos estos factores en las campañas electorales, analizamos cómo los candidatos utilizaron las redes sociales más populares, Facebook y Twitter, en tres países diferentes, con un sistema político, electoral y de partidos diferente y también una cultura política diferente: España (2011), EE. UU. (2012) y Noruega (2013).El análisis concluye que, si bien las campañas electorales de los países más democratizados cada vez se parecen más, el sistema y la cultura política de cada país todavía influyen en la calidad de las campañas electorales y en las estrategias que se despliegan durante el período electoral.

Playful activism : memetic performances of palestinian resistance in TikTok #Challenges

Palestinians have long been using social media as a tool for activism. Each platform provides unique socio-technological affordances that shape users' communicative practices as networked publics. Focusing on the video-sharing platform TikTok, which has taken a "serious turn" in recent years, this article examines how Palestinian users performed playful acts of resistance during the escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israelis in May 2021. Applying a multimodal analysis to 500 TikTok videos posted during the conflict under #gazaunderattack, we identify three memetic templates (#challenge)-(1) lip-syncing, (2) duets, and (3) point-of-view-that unfold the ways TikTok's design and its play-based affordances ignite affective streams of audiovisual content that render playful activism in times of conflict. Driven by TikTok's culture of imitation and competition, playful activism enables the participation of ordinary users in political emerging events with the help of looping meme videos composed of collaborative, dialogic, and communal socio-technical functions. Playful activism transforms users' ritualized performances into powerful political instruments on TikTok and makes democratic participation more relatable, tangible, and accessible to various audiences

Native Media and Business Models: Comparative Study of 14 Successful Experiences in Latin America

From its onset on the 1990s, both digital native (with sister headings on the analog platform) as digital native news media have experienced a constant transformation process. The accelerated technological evolution linked to the changing information consumption habits of the users demanded a constant reinvention capability. Furthermore, the need for profit and the drop in advertisement sales have pushed the media to redefine their structure, content and social media presence. The Ibero-American scene has experienced a sprout of a mixture of digital native news media. They are journalistic projects, conceived from and on the Internet, which have reached considerable renown and becoming reference media on the information level. Internet prompted a reduction of the costs related to the creation of media outlets. However, the establishment of a sustainable business model is one of the main challenges. The research presented looks at the business models of Ibero-American digital native news media based on a comparative analysis of 14 case studies, alongside interviews with their founders. The findings include, among other things, a tendency for business models based on diverse and hyper-specialized content targeted at micro-audiences. This research found an interest in horizontality, participation and user engagement, and noticed the need for these media to diversify their income sources

"Africa does not fit in Europe" : a comparative analysis of anti-immigration parties' discourse in Spain and Italy

The politicization of immigration has moved the debate about immigration at the center of the run-up of elections, creating the breeding ground for the electoral breakthrough and success of right-wing populist parties. This article aims at disclosing the narrative of immigration and its politicization in VOX's discourse, comparing it to the Italian Lega party. Clause-based semantic text analysis reveals that both parties share the classic characteristics of nativist populism: the representation of a virtuous and hardworking people, threatened by the invasion by some "others", immigrants, who intrude the sovereign, antispace of natives to exploit and commit crimes. In both cases, the concept of space is manipulated, representing countries as limited spaces, allowing to depict immigrants as a threat to legitimize negative political responses. The study also identifies a novelty: the construction of the rescue NGOs as the new antagonist actor.La politización de la inmigración ha llevado el tema la inmigración al centro del debate político-electoral, creando el caldo de cultivo para el éxito de los partidos populistas de derecha. Este artículo tiene como objetivo estudiar la narrativa de la inmigración y su politización en el discurso de VOX, comparándola con el partido italiano Lega. El análisis revela que ambos partidos comparten las características clásicas del populismo nativista: la representación de un pueblo virtuoso y trabajador, amenazado por la invasión de algunos "otros", los inmigrantes, que se entran en el espacio soberano de los nativos para explotar y cometer crímenes. En ambos casos, se manipula el concepto de espacio, representando a los países como espacios limitados y a los inmigrantes como una amenaza, para legitimar las respuestas políticas negativas. El estudio también identifica una novedad: la construcción de las ONG de rescate como el nuevo actor antagonista

What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case

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

Cap a l'americanització de les campanyes electorals? : L'ús de Facebook i Twitter a Espanya, Estats Units i Noruega

La primera victòria electoral d'Obama va demostrar que, per guanyar unes eleccions, cal tenir presència a les xarxes socials: és innegable que a la majoria dels països desenvolupats les campanyes en línia estan reemplaçant les campanyes tradicionals.Molts acadèmics ja parlen d'una americanització de la política i assumeixen que en les campanyes electorals els partits polítics i els candidats dels països més democratitzats copien les estratègies i les eines que s'utilitzen als Estats Units. No obstant això, les característiques intrínseques dels sistemes polítics i les peculiaritats de la cultura política de cada país poden influir en la manera d'utilitzar les xarxes socials en les campanyes electorals. Per mesurar com tots aquests factors poden ser determinants en les campanyes electorals, analitzem com els candidats van utilitzar les xarxes socials més populars, Facebook i Twitter, en tres països diferents, amb un sistema polític, electoral i de partits diferent i també una cultura política diferent: Espanya (2011), EUA (2012) i Noruega (2013).L'anàlisi conclou que, si bé les campanyes electorals dels països més democratitzats cada cop s'assemblen més, el sistema i la cultura política de cada país encara influeixen en la qualitat de les campanyes electorals i en les estratègies que es despleguen durant el període electoral.La primera victoria electoral de Obama demostró que, para ganar unas elecciones, es necesario tener presencia en las redes sociales: es innegable que en la mayoría de los países desarrollados las campañas en línea están reemplazando a las campañas tradicionales.Muchos académicos ya hablan de una americanización de la política y asumen que en las campañas electorales los partidos políticos y los candidatos de todos los países copian las estrategias y las herramientas que se utilizan en Estados Unidos. No obstante, las características intrínsecas de los sistemas políticos y las peculiaridades de la cultura política de cada país pueden influir en la manera de utilizar las redes sociales en las campañas electorales. Para medir lo determinantes que pueden ser todos estos factores en las campañas electorales, analizamos cómo los candidatos utilizaron las redes sociales más populares, Facebook y Twitter, en tres países diferentes, con un sistema político, electoral y de partidos diferente y también una cultura política diferente: España (2011), EE. UU. (2012) y Noruega (2013).El análisis concluye que, si bien las campañas electorales de los países más democratizados cada vez se parecen más, el sistema y la cultura política de cada país todavía influyen en la calidad de las campañas electorales y en las estrategias que se despliegan durante el período electoral.The first Obama's victory proved to the world that in order to win a campaign social networks are essential: it is undeniable that in almost all the "developed" countries on line campaigns are (more or less) slowly but inexorably replacing actual campaigns.For this reason, on the one hand many authors talk about the "Americanization of political campaigns", assuming that somehow all the western countries are going into the direction taken by President Obama, and on the other hand, actually many campaigns throughout the world appear to be clearly Obama-inspired. Nevertheless we assume that both the characteristics of political systems and the peculiarities of different political cultures have an impact on the use of on line tools. In order to measure to which extent these factors influence the importance and the structure of on line campaigning, we will analyze how candidates used the two most important social networks, Facebook and Twitter, in three different countries representing three models of political, electoral and party system, in three different respective campaigns: Spain (2011), USA (2012) and Norway (2013).Through the analysis, we will be able to conclude that actually both political system and political culture still exercise a great influence on the amount of Internet campaigning, on the quality of campaigns themselves and on the strategies applied

Travellers' virtual communities: a success story

Este artículo se propone estudiar la comunidad italiana de viajeros on line Ho sempre voglia di partire que, en solo dos años de vida, cuenta con más de 540 000 seguidores, más de 7 000 000 de visitas por mes y 2 700 000 interacciones. El objetivo es describir las interacciones presentes en la comunidad para desvelar las razones por las cuales los usuarios participan, los beneficios, reales y simbólicos que obtienen, y poder comprender las razones del éxito. A través de una triangulación de métodos el artículo desvela como la clave de todas las interacciones es la emoción y que, por lo tanto, los beneficios que los miembros obtienen son principalmente emocionales.    This article aims at studying the Italian online travelers’ community Ho sempre voglia di partire, which, in only two years of life, has reached more than 540 000 followers, over 7 000 000 visits per month and over all 2 700 000 interactions, becoming —according to its creators— the largest travelers’ community in Europe. The objective is to describe the interactions that characterizes the community, to reveal the reasons why users participate, the actual and symbolical benefits they obtain, and to understand the reasons for success. Through a triangulation of methods, the article reveals how the key of all interactions is emotion and how, therefore, the benefit that the members obtain is mainly emotional