Professor Klaus Goldhammer (Goldmedia) provided the substantive impetus for the panel “Democracy in the feed – Does TikTok decide our democracy?” at the Medientage München 2025 with the presentation of a study commissioned by the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM) and the Baden-Württemberg State Institute for Communication (LFK). The study analysed video posts by politicians and political parties in the run-up to the 2025 federal elections. The results show clear differences in the presence of the parties on the various social media channels. On the other hand, the parties show consistency in the tone of their posts: instead of informative and factual content, they predominantly focus on emotional and expressive messages.
to the study (in german)
Does social media influence elections?
Even though social media undoubtedly shapes topics and creates visibility, bidt Director Professor Andreas Jungherr emphasised that there is no empirical evidence that social media decides elections. Rather, they act as a catalyst for social moods and underlying dissatisfaction. Although technical spaces are an expression of political processes, too much focus on technology obscures the actual political causes and content.
Of course, social media has an influence and changes politics – that cannot be ignored. But the causes of the phenomena we are observing and which cause us concern lie deeper than the technology on which they become visible.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr To the profile
Social media are therefore a symptom, not the source of political polarisation, emphasised Jungherr. Simple explanations that attribute election results solely to the use of social media fall short and distract from the necessary political responses.
Jungherr discussed two possible explanations for the success of political actors on social media, which he believes cannot be clearly separated. On the one hand, the communication style of populist actors fits particularly well with the algorithmic mechanisms of the platforms. As a result, populist content is particularly successful on social networks. Another explanation assumes that certain parties are under particularly high evolutionary pressure to find new communication channels. Jungherr referred to “Die Linke” as an illustrative example. The party faced considerable challenges at the beginning of the year, but repositioned itself by developing new strategies and digital formats. The external pressure acted as a stimulus for innovation.
Because we have so many new tools that can offer a communicative advantage, we are dealing with an innovation bonus in election campaigns.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr To the profile
This bonus arises because new digital spaces are initially unoccupied and those who utilise them early on gain a head start. Large parties, on the other hand, often show inertia here, as they feel neither the desire nor the need to innovate.
Strategies for a more democratic digital space
The final round of the panel was dedicated to the question: “If you had a lever with which you could make the digital election campaign more democratic, where would you start?”.
Jungherr’s suggestion: In order to achieve more control, more democracy and more formative policy, we need to start with European economic and innovation policy. Europe is currently highly fragmented, while the political public sphere takes place on foreign platforms over which European rules have little influence. The European Union needs to focus more on how to promote a willingness to embrace technology and innovation in Europe in order to regain its own technological capabilities. Markus Beckedahl added to Jungherr’s call for a European innovation policy with an appeal for greater regulation and transparency. Power must be limited, he emphasised – through the consistent application of antitrust and competition law as well as clear regulation of algorithms. The aim must be to make Germany and Europe independent of a few foreign companies that have created platforms that can no longer be trusted.
To the Event
To the research project
