Philippine University Students’ Exposure To Political Promotion On Tiktok and Their Political Participation

Abstract

The use of the Internet has become the main source of political efficacy and participation, enhancing awareness about voting and campaigning. With Media Dependency and Social Cognitive Theories as frameworks, this study intended to know the relationship between Filipino university students’ exposure to political promotion on TikTok, and their political participation during the 2022 Philippine National Election. This study considered the self-report of a total of 300 respondents with a quantitative research design, specifically correlational research method, to analyze the data. The findings show that the respondents had a moderate amount of exposure to political promotion content on TikTok. The study puts forward that TikTok is influential in affecting respondents’ understanding and awareness of political information because exposure showed a significant positive relationship with knowledge of politics. Additionally, this study observed a significant positive correlation between respondents’ exposure and their attitude towards politics-related activities. Similarly, exposure and behavior established a positive and significant relationship. The respondents’ amount of exposure was enough to create subsequent media effects on the cognitive, attitude, and behavior of the respondents towards political-related information and activities, despite only registering at a moderate level. Because knowledge and exposure had a positive relationship, it resulted in a subsequent positive effect. According to the knowledge-attitude-behavior model, knowledge is essential for effecting changes in behavior and attitude. This study highlights the significance of new media, particularly TikTok, on Filipino university students’ political engagement. It also draws attention to other aspects, like culture, that may have an impact on their political participation.