This study examines how short-form political videos (SFPVs) are reshaping political communication. SFPVs are characterized by compressed visuals and algorithmic recommendations, and influence how citizens encounter political information, emphasizing emotional resonance and performative authenticity. Drawing on a structured narrative review of political communication scholarship on SFPVs, this study synthesizes research on algorithmic mediation, political mobilization, and audience trust, highlighting broader implications for political participation. The study argues that SFPVs should be understood not merely as campaign tools but as core infrastructural components of platform-governed public spheres that reorganize patterns of political attention, authority, and legitimacy. Japan provides a critical case: within its silver democracy, algorithmically mediated political engagement is expanding rapidly among younger and working-age cohorts, while older voters remain anchored in legacy media. This structural divide may limit opportunities for cross-generational deliberation and constrain the translation of digital mobilization into institutional outcomes. This study makes three conceptual contributions. First, it frames SFPVs as generating dual democratic dynamics: the same algorithmic mechanisms that lower participation barriers and expand political visibility can simultaneously weaken shared epistemic foundations. Second, it theorizes an epistemic divide, a generationally and institutionally embedded condition in which different cohorts rely on distinct media infrastructures and forms of political trust. Third, it argues that generative AI amplifies these dynamics by enabling scalable forms of synthetic authenticity, accelerating affect-driven political engagement beyond the conventional institutional system. Overall, this study demonstrates that SFPVs constitute a central infrastructure through which political engagement and democratic legitimacy are increasingly produced, contested, and destabilized under algorithmic governance.
|
