Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso’s Tiktok Activity During Ecuador’s 2021 Presidential Campaign

Abstract

The social media has become one of the main political communication channels. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to assess the communication strategies—specifically TikTok activities—implemented by Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso, the final candidates for Ecuador’s presidency in 2021. The content analysis technique was applied to the total number of videos that both candidates posted during the run-off election. Moreover, a codebook was designed, demonstrating high levels of inter-coder reliability (αk = 0.88), and statistical tests were conducted to evaluate the relationship between the study variables. In this vein, statistically significant differences were found between the communication strategies and candidates’ level of interaction with the audience. Consequently, choosing content and linguistic codes correctly, as well as visual codes, to achieve a participatory and multidirec-tional communication, became clear.