Abstract

TikTok is not just another app added to the existing social networking platform ecosystem. Rather, it is a heavy factor of innovation that is transforming political communication at the roots. As a content driven platform, it generates a multitude of personal micro-programs, leading to the hypothesis of a widespread return to a peculiar form of individualized broadcasting on a large scale. This study examines the impact of TikTok’s algorithm-driven media logic on political communication, particularly during the 2022 Italian general elections; which represented the first widespread use of TikTok for political campaigning in Italy. To understand who were the most influential actors in the TikTok debate surrounding the 2022 elections and what topics were most discussed, we collected 14.308 videos posted between September 1 and September 25, 2022, analyzing the videos from the 390 accounts that gained 100.000 views with at least one post. Findings show the centrality of the intermediation function carried out by ordinary users and influencers with varying degrees of popularity in political communication. Common citizens and social media celebrities were among the most popular creators in the electoral debate, while media outlets and political actors occupied lower influence categories, typically classified as micro-influencers. Celebrities and civil society were the most effective at generating contents that reached over one million views. In contrast, political and media content tended to have lower engagement.