Emotions in political communication on TikTok and their perception by the young generation

This thesis examines the role of emotions in political communication on the social network TikTok and how this political content using emotions is perceived by the younger generation. TikTok represents a specific communication environment based on short, visually appealing videos and algorithmic content recommendations, which influences the form of political communication on this platform. The aim of this thesis is to understand how political actors use emotions in their communication on TikTok and how young users perceive these emotional strategies. The thesis combines qualitative content analysis of political posts by Czech political actors on TikTok with group discussions with young users of this platform. The results show that emotions are used systematically in political communication on TikTok and that individual actors work with different emotional strategies. Young people are able to critically evaluate emotionally charged political content, with authenticity proving to be a key factor. Emotions tend to reinforce existing attitudes and relationships toward political actors rather than leading to fundamental changes in political opinions.