TikTok Edits, Vibes, Audio Memes: Participatory Propaganda in the 2025 German Federal Election Campaign

Marcus Bösch
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Marcus Bösch: Department of Communication (IfK), University of Münster, Germany

Media and Communication, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: This article examines how participatory propaganda operated on TikTok during the 2025 German federal election, focusing on how platform-specific vernaculars—TikTok edits, vibes, and audio memes—reshaped campaign communication. The study analyzes over 1,200 videos from official party and candidate accounts, alongside party-aligned fan videos, edits, and reused pro-party sounds to capture participatory diffusion. Participatory propaganda is conceptualized as co-performed, affect-driven political communication in which audiences create and amplify content. Participatory propaganda contrasts with classical persuasive campaigning in how persuasion is produced, privileging distributed participation, affective resonance, and blurred boundaries between elite and non-elite messaging. Combining platform ethnography and qualitative content analysis, it demonstrates five key markers: remixability, calls to action, coordination between official and unofficial actors, aesthetic and affective prioritization, and snowball virality. These dynamics unfold through TikTok edits (rapid visual sequencing), vibes (affective mood cues), and audio memes (reused sound snippets that carry shared meaning). The findings reveal how co-option and co-production intersect: Official campaigns employ remixable cues that grassroots actors transform into memeable narratives, while elite actors increasingly incorporate fan-produced edits and vibes into their messaging. Right-wing actors benefit most from dense supporter networks and decentralized production. Overall, campaign visibility and participatory uptake on TikTok hinge on affective infrastructures, complicating rational models of electoral communication. The article contributes to theorizing the platformization of politics by integrating campaign research and platform studies, emphasizing collective creativity as a defining feature of digital communication.

Keywords: campaigning; elections; fandom; political communication; political participation; propaganda; TikTok (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v14:y:2026:a:11755

DOI: 10.17645/mac.11755

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