Political discourse on Tiktok in Belgium and Germany : a speech-act analysis of popular science communication during climate change and Covid-19 crises

Details

Supervisors

Cougnon, Louise-Amélie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée: langues des affaires

Abstract

This thesis aims to compare political discourse from German and Belgian political figures on TikTok regarding two crisis contexts, the climate change issue and the COVID-19 pandemic, by employing the speech-act theory and popularisation of science. By analysing 80 videos of political discourses from TikTok with both a qualitative content analysis and a descriptive statistical analysis, the research’s objectives were to find similarities between German and Belgian politicians’ communication strategies on TikTok on videos about both crises, which included determining whether politicians were using popularisation of science in their discourses and if their distribution of speech acts differed depending upon the country or the theme, to define the various forms of interaction and engagement between Belgian and German politicians and their audience, and to observe the solutions they were proposing to the crises in their discourses. Results concluded that although German and Belgian politicians share relatively the same communication strategies in crisis contexts, a closer proximity with the audience is sought among Belgian politicians, while a more practical approach is adopted by German politicians, who are more inclined to use their platform to inform the population and to propose solutions to the crises with a more scientific and precise approach.