The recent 2024 election had a significant presence online, further establishing digital media's influence on society and democratic processes. In the months leading up to the election, candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris utilized TikTok to attract the attention of younger audiences. Trump and Harris each have two separate accounts: a campaign account and a "personal" account– seemingly referred to as personal, despite its management by a media team. Both candidates’ campaign TikTok accounts, @KamalaHQ and @teamtrump, have gained popularity by utilizing pop culture references and keeping up with the latest trends. These campaigns sparked controversial discussions online about a political candidate's presence on social media and whether publishing this content diminishes their authenticity and seriousness as a public figure. While these TikTok accounts successfully engage a young audience, they struggle to promote candidate’s messages, as their content tends to disconnect from political ideologies. Both campaigns appeal to a Gen Z audience using memes in the majority of their posts. Memes effectively communicate cultural references in an accessible manner but are ineffective political campaign strategies. Memes superficially engage an audience, often attracting a community that solely interacts for entertainment and undermines any present political ideology.
Researcher Jenna Drente describes TikTok's homepage, the For You Page (FYP), as “the TikTok version of front page news” (Drenton, 2022). As users encounter political TikToks on their feed, they interpret them as they would a breaking headline, by paying attention to its most captivating aspects. TikTok delivers an infinite flow of short videos, enabling users to devote minimal attention while scrolling and still receive abundant information. This feature of TikTok limits the depth of an individual’s engagement; users only comprehend the fundamental elements of content rather than forming more sophisticated understandings. As individuals respond to the growing controversy about the unique role of TikTok campaigns, they often take information out of context and jump to conclusions based on the posts. This interaction separates the content from its original purpose, and users focus more on the fact that memes are being used rather than the policies and opinions they aim to represent.
A specific example of a meme’s counterproductive role in politics is from late August when @teamtrump posted a video following the “Symphony” trend (@teamtrump, 2024) . In this post, the words "Vote for Trump unless you want to be drafted to fight World War III” overlay an image of multicolored dolphins jumping before a rainbow [Figure 1] (@teamtrump, 2024) . The “Symphony” trend intends to juxtapose between the whimsical background image and the ironical absurd phrase that overlays it. The niche objective of this trend exemplifies Poe’s Law, defined by culture researchers Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis as a “preservation of ambiguity,” where it becomes difficult to distinguish whether a piece of content is sincere or satirical (Marwick & Lewis, 2017). The absurd combination of a serious statement and quirky background image relies on viewer interpretation to determine the post’s intended meaning. However, this attempt at relatable and entertaining content becomes a reference that only resonates with a particular group. If analyzing the post from an ironic perspective, individuals unfamiliar with the trend and unable to comprehend its satire may seriously consider the advertisement against WW3, leading to ultimate confusion. On the other hand, if examining the post with sincerely persuasive motivations, it likely fails as most of the audience sees the content, and the only individuals who would appreciate his use of the reference already support his campaign. TikTok (and other similar platforms) uses collaborative filtering in its algorithm, which recommends users’ content based on the preferences of other users with similar interests (Bishop, 2019). Collaborative filtering restricts the productivity of political campaigns as it shares a candidate's content with a group of like-minded individuals, further reinforcing their select political opinions. Therefore, the aims of the “Symphony” post failed entirely through their reliance on exclusive connections and inability to capture a broad audience.
TikTok enables political figures to promote themselves online in the same way celebrities do, a concept evident in Kamala Harris’ digital campaign. Harris utilized her TikTok platform to create and endorse a personalized image, embodying the phenomenon of the cult of personality. In his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Philosopher Walter Benjamin describes this idea and how celebrities would create “an artificial build-up of the[ir] personality" that contrasted with reality (Benjamin, 1936, p. 57). As Harris romanticizes aspects of her life and campaign on TikTok, she depicts an idealized version of herself. For example, on October 8, Harris uploaded a fan-edited style video featuring an interview where she discussed owning a gun [Figure 2] (@KamalaHQ, 2024). In this video, snippets of her saying, “I Have a Glock” are spliced over footage of her election tour, accompanied by a lively rap song in the background (@KamalaHQ, 2024). This TikTok reinforces Harris’s desired appearance as courageous yet careless, representing a “cool” persona that will appeal to a younger audience. The glamorization of political figures can be extremely problematic as individuals begin to overlook their potential flaws and stop holding them accountable. When people, especially the youth, romanticize political figures, they create unrealistic expectations that their select candidate will be a perfect future leader, incapable of doing wrong. Such beliefs are harmful because these supporters tend to excuse a candidate’s potentially corrupt, immoral, or manipulative behaviors. The cult of personality is a dangerous part of digital media campaigns because it deceives people into relying on someone whose genuine support for their interests cannot be guaranteed.
Overall, the use of memes in political campaigns fails to persuade individuals as they intend to. The humorous approach of Trump and Kamala’s TikTok accounts exemplifies this idea as their posts diminish the seriousness and reliability required to be effectively persuasive in a political campaign. Political candidates should instead utilize their social media accounts to present their proposed policies and ideologies in a digestible manner that a widespread audience can understand and appreciate.
References:
Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction
Bishop, S. (2019). Managing visibility on YouTube through algorithmic gossip. New Media & Society, 21(11–12), 2589–2606.
Donald Trump [@teamtrump]. (2024, August 29). Vote Trump for peace through strength. [Video] TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTYYJQyxj/
Drenton, J. (2022). West Elm Caleb and the rise of the TikTok tabloid. The Conversation
Kamala Harris [@KamalaHQ]. (2024, October 8). Kamala Interview. [Video] TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq/video/7423451105872432426
Marwick, A. & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online. Data & Society Research Institute. [Excerpt].
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chapter 3.
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