“Man” vs “Romanian”. The words that dominated the speech on Tiktok of the candidates Nicușor Dan and George Simon in the presidential campaign

Nicușor Dan will be invested today as president of Romania. Under the conditions of a single TV debate, it was a campaign that many analysts claimed belonged to the Internet. Tiktok was an instrument in which both candidates invested huge resources. If in the posts of George Simion, words like “Romanian”, “people” and “country” predominated, Nicușor Dan's interventions were marked by the frequency of words “man”, “must” and “do”, an analysis published by the Snoop investigative site.

• Three specialists in communication and political sociology explain the significance of these differences.

Nicușor Dan won the presidential final with 53% -47% after, in the first round, he had collected 20.99% of the votes, half of his opponent, the gold leader George Simion.

An important component of the return of the pro-European candidate was also his presence on social networks. If in November the fight was unbalanced on the Internet, this time both candidates have invested time, creativity and money on social networks.

We looked at what the two candidates from the Cotroceni race in the April campaign and the second round were posted on the official Tiktok accounts. Using a program of Web Scrapingan automatic software for downloading video clips made especially for Tiktok, we analyzed the language, tone and theme approached by Nicușor Dan and George Simion on this platform.

The videos were transcribed automatically, with the help of artificial intelligence, then analyzed through a data processing application.

We analyzed the 31 clips posted by George Simion on Tiktok and 120 videos published by Nicușor Dan, from April 3 to May 15, that is, from the beginning of the election campaign for tour I and near the end of the Campaign for Tour II. I then made a list of the most common words used in the videos of those. The articulated and plural words we counted as the basic form of the word (for example, “Romanians”, “Romanians” and “Romanian” were metered at “Romanian”).

Nicușor Dan: 83 times “man”, 60 times “must”, 59 times “do”

The most commonly used word in Nicușor Dan's clips is “man” – 83 times. The clips are largely from the interviews posted on his tiktok account.

Compared to Simion, Dan has several filming with Bucharest, especially young people, who are asked why they would vote. His page also contains some fragments removed from the political debates he participated in the election campaigns before each tour.

For example, in a clip on April 30, a few young people are asked what they think about Nicușor Dan. “It is seen to be a man who has really fought with some things, is not like the other politicians, ”someone says. Mafia real estate ”.

“(…) It's one man Seriously, it's a man clean from the point of view of the past, (…) a man With PhD in Paris, than the head of gallery (…) ”.

In another, some of those interviewed on the street say that he “had the courage to do things that no one sees”, but also to support Europe and Ukraine. Others say that “it seems like a man worker, it seems to me a man Passionate, given, in mind that he is also very familiar, it seems to me that he has some principles (…) ”.

And the word “mafia” appears in one form or another six times in the clips on Tiktok: “Real Estate”, “Wood Mafia” or “Stopped Mafia”.

Top of words used in Nicușor Dan's clips of Tiktok:

Man: 83

• must: 60
• do: 59
• Romanian: 46
• Nicușor: 34
• year: 33
• Child: 31
• could: 30
• Vote: 30
• State: 26
• Country: 25
• Work: 25
• Moment: 22
• System: 21

The word “system” spoke 21 times by Nicușor Dan

The word “system” appears in particular as opposition to the classic power structures. We find it in constructions of the type of “the man's man”, “fight with the system”, “anti-system fighters” or “corrupt system. However, there are some references to the” education system “or” heating system “, or” public system “.

“You asked me how I fought with the system. Let's see an example. What does this mean fight with the system? Each of the files here represents an illegal act that an authority at the issued. (…) That means fight with the system. Nowadays he is full of people who declare himself anti-system fighters, eo fashion to be anti-system. My question is for each of them: How many times has he been in court to defend a cause of some people? (…) ”, Nicușor Dan said in a video from April 7, pointing to dozens of files arranged in a library.

Simion: 57 times “Romanian”, 29 times “country”, 23 times “people”

The speeches of the candidate gold often start with “dear friends ..” or “my dear”, expressions that he uses 10 times during the period I analyzed.

“My dearwe are at Mount Athos, we have just received from a monk an icon with Saint George for Mr. Călin Georgescu, to do justice and to defend the Romanian people. That's what we all have to do (…), “says George Simion on April 25, Tiktok.

The most commonly used is the word “Romanian” (or forms of it: “Romanians”, “Romanians”, “Romanians”, “Romanian”), which appears in the speeches of George Simion 53 times. Sometimes, in construction, such as “Romanian people”. The “country” was used 29 times, followed by “must” 26 times. He used “people” 23 times: “(…) people Romanian He woke up from sleep, woke up before leaving this world, wake up, woke up in consciousness, and realized that he was living in a great lie. (…) We need to do everything in our power to live in our children country them, in Romania”.

“It is humiliating for ROMANIAN be still led by the same system that has been playing by PEOPLE Our 35 years old. What Nicușor Dan does running away from a debate in front of ROMANIANbelieving on ROMANIAN stupid as supporters and over three million five hundred thousand were offended ROMANIAN who put the stamp next to my name, this is not acceptable, “said George Simion in a video from May 7, which has been deleted in the meantime.

Top WORD used by George Simion in his addresses on Tiktok:

• Romanian: 57
• Country: 29
• you must: 26
• People: 23
• do: 21
• so: 16
• Friend: 12
• year: 12
• Man: 12
• Vote: 12
• could: 11
• come: 11
• Electoral: 11
• State: 10

Higher media exposure for Nicușor Dan

In the case of Nicușor Dan, what helped was the much bigger media exposure from the second round, both online and on TV, especially since he participated alone in the electoral debates, without his counter -candidate. In this way, he reached audiences that were undecided or did not vote in the first round.

“It has been seen to him and a more relaxed way to approach the electoral themes. There is this perception that we have a candidate who responds correctly, but from the character's perspective he would have to recover. This I noticed in the second round, a reconfiguration of his image,” concludes the teacher.

Snoop showed that Nicușor Dan spent over 40.4 million lei (almost 8 million euros) in the presidential campaign, the second tour, while George Simion used 27.9 million lei (5.5 million euros), according to data reported to the Permanent Electoral Authority. The amounts are the ones reported until May 21, including, for the campaign money from the second round.

Nicușor Dan spent 1.9 million euros for his TV appearances – the first five televisions are RTV, Antena 3 CNN and Antena 1, B1 and Digi 24).

George Simion paid 3 million euros – out of the 5.5 million reported – to Reality Plus – television controlled by the Păcuraru family. What does the frequency of the words used by the two mean, according to the specialists, in the article in Snoop.