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Gil Sharon

Gil Sharon

Profile

I am a PhD student in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, researching the dynamic convergence of digital media, collaborative political campaigning, and contemporary American politics. My current PhD project examines the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement campaign strategy on TikTok in the 2024 Presidential election. I investigate how the MAGA movement adopts TikTok's unique norms to construct its own and Donald Trump's political imagery and to spread coordinated messaging. By mapping this network, the project aims to identify how semi-organic, decentralised political groups operate as a cohesive network campaigning effort.

Research Interests

  • Digital Political Communication: Platform norms, affordances and guidelines in structuring the group dynamic of a political network and in shaping its multimodal vernacular messages.
  • Right-Wing Populism: The contextual political narratives, ideologies, rhetoric, aesthetics, and identity that drive the Trumpism/MAGA movement in US politics. Disinformation & Strategic Framing: How political movements weaponise real-world crises, create strategic narratives of victimhood, and seed alternative information ecosystems.
  • Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative content analysis, multimodal social semiotics, and social network analysis.

Awards and Recognition

  • James Thomas Prize (2026): Awarded for Best Paper at the joint conference hosted by the Political Studies Association (PSA) Media and Politics Group and the Technology, Information and Policy Group (MPG x TIP).
    • Paper title: "MAGA on TikTok: the social construction of a crisis amid the 2024 presidential election" (Explores how MAGA socially constructed the devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton to construct narratives of victimhood).
  • Richard E. Neustadt Paper Prize (2025): Awarded for Best Paper at the 51st Annual American Political Group (APG) conference of the Political Studies Association (PSA).
    • Paper title: “The far-right appealing strategies on TikTok around the 2024 US election” (Preliminary insights from the content analysis of the MAGA TikTok 2024 presidential election campaign).
  • Fulbright Excellence Scholarship (2020): Awarded by The Center for the Study of the United States in partnership with the Fulbright program at Tel-Aviv University for my Master’s research into the relationship between mainstream media mistrust and belief in fake news on Facebook.

Publications & Presentations

  • Journal Article in Frontiers in Psychology: Sude, Daniel Jeffrey; Sharon, Gil; Dvir-Gvirsman, Shira. 2023. True, justified, belief? Partisanship weakens the positive effect of news media literacy on fake news detection. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1242865
  • Social Media & Society International Conference (2026): “MAGA on TikTok: Issue Mapping a Political Network.”
  • Unlimited Ideas in Three Minutes: School of Media and Communication PGR Research Symposium (2026): “Political network action model: A three-way analytical framework.”
  • PSA Media and Politics Group & Technology, Information and Policy Group Joint Conference (2026): "MAGA on TikTok: the social construction of a crisis amid the 2024 presidential election."
  • MeCCSA (2025): Identity and Belonging: “MAGA on TikTok around the 2024 US election: Hurricane Helene as a case study.”
  • LSE United States Politics and Policy blog post: “The 2024 Elections: Emotional appeals through diversity and victimhood helped the reactionary right use TikTok to reshape its image.”
  • 51st Annual American Political Group (APG) Conference (2025): “The far-right appealing strategies on TikTok around the 2024 US election.”
  • inter(connections): School of Media and Communication PGR Symposium (2024): “The Far Right and TikTok.”

Prior to pursuing my PhD, I worked as a media analyst at Ifat Media Group. In this role, I conducted traditional media framing analyses for government agencies, utilising various content analysis methods and tools. I served as the public desk manager, overseeing the company's research for public-sector agencies.

Qualifications

  • Digital Method Summer School at the University of Manchester
  • MA in Communication, Tel-Aviv University
  • BA in Film and Television, Tel-Aviv University
  • Communication studies, University of North Florida