Tiktok Content in Communication Strategy: Politics of the 15th General Election in Malaysia

Abstract

Political communication is the exchange of the latest news between the government and society or vice versa. The purpose of political communication is to get support or votes from the people. Nowadays, social media is increasingly important in political communication because social media can be used by anyone interested without any limitations. Therefore, this study aims to examine the ability of TikTok as one medium of political communication strategy. This study looks at the extent by which the main youth political leaders in Malaysia optimize the use of TikTok as a political communication strategy, evaluates the adaptation of political leaders with TikTok in terms of content, identifies the type of interaction with TikTok users, evaluates the political communication strategies through TikTok and the effectiveness of TikTok use in influencing improvement political supporters ahead of GE-15. This study selected two TikTok accounts, namely Y.B. Syed Saddiq and Shahril Sufian Hamdan as a study sample. The results of the study indicated the significant advantage of Y.B Syed Saddiq in using TikTok as a political communication tool in comparison to Shahril Sufian Hamdan. The youth-friendly interaction demonstrated by Y.B. Syed Saddiq made him one of the most highly followed politicians with successful message sharing.Shahril Sufian Hamdan and other politicians should adapt to a new era in efforts to political communication. Politicians should use social media more effectively and post more friendly content to social media users and increase interaction activities with them.

Keywords:  content; Malaysia; politic; TikTok