Political and Ideological Predictors of Voting Behaviour in the Greek Elections of 2023. “The TikTok Elections”

The present study aims to examine the political and ideological predictors of voting behaviour in the Greek elections of 2023, with a specific focus on the utilization of TikTok by party leaders as a digital campaign strategy. The act of voting is a seemingly simple yet entirely complex process. It has been highlighted by social scientists that predicting election results with accuracy has been proven less difficult than explaining the way the electorate makes specific decisions when it comes to voting. Hence, we aspire to unravel the aspects that affect voting behaviour through a new media lens. The current study is based on qualitative analysis. Specifically, we employ a thematic analysis, with a contextualist approach in order to gain nuanced insights and a greater understanding of the niche field of social media influence on voting behaviour. The unit of analysis is represented by TikToks. The data sample comprised 123 videos that were manually collected by the author from the official TikTok accounts of Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy), Alexis Tsipras (Syriza), and Nikos Androulakis (PASOK). The data were later analyzed, coded, and divided into themes, created through an inductive and deductive approach. The findings show that all political parties analyzed use various combinations of political and ideological factors to influence voting behaviour, along with strategies that enhance perceptions of their authenticity and relatability. The medium also offers a wide range of tools that are being utilized to varying degrees to make political communication more engaging for younger audiences.