The Virality of TikTok and New Media in Disrupting and Overturning the Election Cancellation Paradigm in Romania

Andreea Nistor () and Eduard Zadobrischi ()
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Andreea Nistor: Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences, “Stefan cel Mare” University, No. 13 Str. Universitatii, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Eduard Zadobrischi: Department of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, “Stefan cel Mare” University, No. 13 Str. Universitatii, 720229 Suceava, Romania

Administrative Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-34

Abstract: This study uses natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze the political discourse of the surprise presidential candidate, focusing on linguistic patterns, sentiment distribution, and recurring themes. This study addresses the problem of how TikTok virality and algorithmic amplification mechanisms can influence electoral outcomes in Romania, analyzing whether heuristic boosting strategies can distort traditional political paradigms. The text corpus included over 3915 words extracted from the candidate’s speeches, with the most frequent terms being “sovereignty” (271 occurrences), “democracy” (164 occurrences), and “freedom” (80 occurrences). The analysis revealed that 57.8% of the content was neutral, 10% conveyed positive sentiment, and negative sentiment was absent. A word frequency analysis highlighted the candidate’s strategic emphasis on concepts related to national identity and participatory democracy. Sentiment analysis revealed an intentional use of neutral language to maintain balance, with occasional positive terms maintaining confidence and optimism among voters.

Keywords: natural language processing (NLP); political discourse; word frequency analysis; sentiment analysis; big data analytics; heuristic algorithms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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