El papel de TikTok en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones entre Luisa González y Daniel Noboa

Abstract

This study examines the communication strategies employed by presidential candidates Luisa González and Daniel Noboa on the social network TikTok during the second round of the 2025 elections. An exploratory-descriptive methodological design was used, combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies with the aim of cataloguing and characterising the tactics deployed in the corresponding digital ecosystems. The nature of the audiovisual content produced, the choice of hashtags, the interaction rates generated by the audience, and, in a subsequent step, the impact of these components on the beliefs and voting decisions of students at the Technical University of Cotopaxi were analyzed. For data collection, surveys and content analysis were used to quantify and qualify the influence of TikTok on the electoral preferences of young people. The results indicate that both candidates deployed effective digital tactics to capture this audience, although the methods of implementation differed: Noboa used a narrative that intertwined patriotism and humor, while González chose to focus his message on culture and emotional appeals. Despite the rapid spread of videos, TikTok's direct effects on electoral preferences, as measured in the survey, remained quantitatively modest, with a large segment of the youth sample reporting indifference toward the platform as a determinant of their final vote. This study thus inferred that, although TikTok achieves broad penetration and a significant profile among young voters, its ability to translate that exposure into actual elections at the decisive juncture of voting appears to be substantially limited at present.