TIKTOK POLITICAL SATIRE AND YOUTH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: A MEDIATED-LEARNING ANALYSIS

Abstract

Political satire has been a common practice to foster democratic discourse, but we know little about its use on digital channels—especially TikTok. This research examines the effect of TikTok-based political satire on young people’s civic engagement which is positioned through mediated learning theory. Informed by the framework of digital media literacy (Kahne & Bowyer, 2018) and participatory politics (Jenkins et al., 2016), we examine how short-form satire contributes to critical reflection, political dialogue, social identity development in young users. Through mixed-methods analysis of a corpus of 2000 politically satirical TikTok videos (gathered via API scraping and hashtag sampling) and interviews with 40 creators and audiences, we examined. Quantitative content analysis quantified engagements (likes, shares, comments), while qualitative interviews probed for interpretive practices and meaning-making. There is evidence that satirical content plays a role in two different ways – as visitation for politics and mediated learning where humor reduces the barriers to political conversation and promotes peer-to-peer interpretation. But the research also finds risks of over-simplification and selective exposure. These findings imply that political satire on TikTok acts as an informal civic learning space, amplifying youth voices while necessitating interventions to promote critical literacy. Implications for educators, policy makers, and platform governance are presented.

Keywords: TikTok, political satire, youth civic engagement, mediated learning, digital literacy, participatory politics