"A crucial element of TikTok consumption is the act of sharing TikTok videos with others, such as friends. In this article, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork with young adult TikTok users based in the United Kingdom to investigate this practice. I show how people use TikTok’s “For You” page as
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a resource to facilitate social relationships at a distance and in settings of physical copresence. I highlight how TikTok clips are shared in a phatic manner to activate social relationships, for example, by communicating messages such as “thinking about you” or relating to others by referencing TikTok memes in conversations. Attending to sharing practices, I argue, provides a fruitful way to understand how selfidentities and interpersonal relationships are articulated in social media environments increasingly organized around the logic of personalization." (Abstract)
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"This study presents “platform-dependent creative labor” as a typology for exploring youth empowerment through the performance of creative labor on Bilibili, the most prevalent Chinese digital entertainment platform among young people. It employs digital ethnography and semistructured interviews
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to investigate the research question: How does the performance of creative labor on Bilibili affect youth empowerment in China? Findings show that youth empowerment is dynamically achieved through the performance of creative labor on Bilibili in economic, cultural, and sociopolitical terms. However, youth empowerment through platform-dependent creative labor is still faced with multifaceted challenges stemming from capitalist exploitation, stratification barriers, and nation-state censorship in China against the background of marketization, digitalization, and globalization. Overall, I argue that social media can be an empowering tool for the youth as content generators; however, it should be used more cautiously and skillfully." (Abstract)
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"The TikTok self-deprecating (SD) cyberculture is built on the exchange of SD memes among users who deprecate aspects of themselves on a daily basis. Predominantly composed of young people, SD memes on Indonesian TikTok reflect discourses on the daily struggles faced by young Indonesians. To explore
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and categorize the discourses, our research conducted a 6-month virtual ethnography, analyzing 786 videos observed through a conditioned TikTok’s For You Page. This study disclosed persistent discourses in the lives of young Indonesians. The article further discusses the aspects that support TikTok’s SD cyberculture in revealing private struggles that young people might hesitate to share with whom they have daily interactions." (Abstract)
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"As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more seamlessly integrated into our social life, the unfair outcomes and ethical issues associated with AI and its subtechnologies have been widely discussed in scholarly work across disciplines in recent years. This study provides an overview of the conceptu
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alization, empirical scholarship, and ethical concerns related to algorithmic bias across diverse disciplines. In doing so, the study relies on the framework of AI-mediated communication and human-AI communication, as well as topic modeling and semantic network analysis to examine the conceptualization and major thematic areas of AI bias literature. The study reveals the complexity of the concept of algorithmic bias, which extends beyond the algorithm itself. Empirical scholarship on AI and algorithmic bias revolves around conceptualizations, human perceptions, algorithm optimization, practical applications, and ethics and policy implications. Understanding and addressing the ethical challenges require a multilevel examination from the perspectives of different stakeholders. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed in the context of AI and algorithmic justice." (Abstract)
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"This study investigates some of the communicative practices displayed by readers of vertically scrolling digital comics known as webtoons. A big-data emotion detection technique is used to identify, categorize, and analyze the contents of more than 14 million comments posted during the first year o
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f the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors explore the technical affordances of the self-publishing CANVAS section of the Webtoons.com site to demonstrate how an expanding cohort of readers use CANVAS as a chamber for communicating feelings, sharing commiserations, and offering collegial support. In so doing, they contribute to the improvement of participants’ well-being and differentiate themselves from other digital platform users who comment solely on stories, characters, and aesthetics. As such, their parasocial interaction transforms the webtoon format, which has yet to be fully investigated, into a communication platform where the “co-creating engagement” of readers generates a sense of intimacy at a distance. The conclusion highlights theoretical implications surrounding this communal digital technology of the self in the context of artificial intelligence." (Abstract)
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"Web series are, in some ways, tailored for capturing everyday life in a pandemic. As shortform episodic content distributed via online platforms, the creators of Web series commonly work with tight budgets, recruiting crew and cast from their own networks, and making use of the home as an inexpensi
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ve location, methods well suited to the conditions of creative work in lockdown. This essay examines 3 of the many Web series that sought to chronicle everyday life during a pandemic: Cancelled, a Spanish-Australian Web series drama; If I Were There With You, an experimental Brazilian Web series; and the German comedy Web series Drinnen—Im Internet sind alle gleich (Inside: Everyone is equal on the Internet). The essay explores the ways in which international Web series made during lockdown interrogate and expand our understanding of the role of digital culture in everyday life for a post–COVID-19 future." (Abstract)
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"This study explores the construction of distributed trust under today’s networked environment. Focusing on diaspora micro-influencers’ COVID-19-related videos on Bilibili, this study aims to explore: How platform-specific features of Bilibili enhance the construction of distributed trust; the d
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ynamics among a diversity of sources on trust building; and the ways in which the content of uploaders’ videos and users’ comments contribute to the formation of distributed trust. The results show that user participation, particularly participatory surveillance enabled by platform-specific features, plays a key role in the construction of distributed trust. Although it has new characteristics, we can also see that the formation of distributed trust is not a replacement of the old model but only an outcome of its transformation and evolvement." (Abstract)
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"In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the purposes of labor control and surveillance. This trend significantly affects the knowledge workers who are deeply connected with ICT. However, there is a lack of studies tackl
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ing the perceptions of knowledge workers regarding surveillance, its impact on their work practices, and how they push back against it. Based on Scott’s concept of hidden transcripts, this article studies the workplace surveillance faced by Chinese knowledge workers and their responses and reveals the complex interplay between workplace control, the meaning of work, and hidden transcripts. Based on the findings of 13 in-depth interviews and the analysis of the content of 3,205 Weibo posts, 4 themes are identified in the discussions about the work of Chinese knowledge workers, the influence of their perceived meaning of work on their interpretation of surveillance, and the specific strategies of their hidden transcripts. The paradoxical role of ICT is demonstrated in labor rights as sites of surveillance and countersurveillance, especially digital platforms. Furthermore, a more comprehensive internal view of the survival dynamics among knowledge workers is provided." (Abstract)
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