TikTok as a Tool for Building a Political Image: An Empirical Study of the Impact of TikTok Messages on the Reception of Polish Politicians

TikTok has become the fastest-growing social media in recent years.Politicians have also begun to notice its potential and use this medium to build a political image and convince the youngest electorate to vote. The aim of the presented article is to diagnose how TikTok messages influence the evaluation of selected Polish politicians. To check this, we conducted a quasi-experimental study (N = 197) with two measurements. The results confirm that TikTok can be an effective tool for building a political image. The messages used in our study positively impacted the assessment of politicians who skillfully used TikTok’s logic by publishing entertainment content. An in-depth analysis showed that gender and political preferences determine the susceptibility to changing opinions about politicians under the influence of TikTok content, whereas the ideological views of voters are less important.