"This study discusses the use of TikTok during the war that began with the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. TikTok has been the fastest growing social media channel and is known for its young user base. Although associated with lifestyle and light entertainment, it also become an importan
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t arena in the war. Young people abroad used TikTok to obtain information about the conflict and to comment on or share it. This article presents a case study of five young Ukrainian women who captured the attention and sympathy of international audiences via TikTok. The authors study how the women succeeded as influencers and the variety of roles they took on in their performances. For the latter, they suggest a classification scheme for war influencer roles. In addition, they analyse data on the reactions from their audiences, as they appeared in the comments field. In a longer discussion section, the article goes deeper into the gender dimension of war and social media, as well as the possibilities of cosmopolitanism or affective publics. Finally, the authors suggest directions for future research." (Abstract)
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"Libraries have long embedded social media platforms into their work practices, TikTok being a comparatively new addition. After its international launch, TikTok quickly became a popular platform, especially a space for ‘book talk’, called BookTok. The literature on libraries and TikTok is spars
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e, and little research has been done to investigate actual TikTok usage by libraries systematically. There is also a methodological advancement to be made in how to approach hashtags as chains when analyzing social media content. In this paper, we explore how Norwegian public libraries use TikTok, employing a dataset of 3248 posts as the basis for our analysis. The study combines digital methods approaches for data collection and analysis with traditional knowledge organization approaches, focusing on hashtags and hashtag chains as part of the complex socio-technical and algorithmic system. Our study has focused on the interpretive possibilities of hashtags as a constitutive element of the platform vernacular. We find that libraries contribute to the ongoing construction and maintenance of BookTok and LibraryTok, and the intersection of these sides through book recommendations and events. We further introduce the concept of daisy chains, signifying a deliberate but unsystematic tactic of tagging posts, part of the platform vernacular, serving the dual act of influencing distribution and communication in a complex algorithmic system." (Abstract)
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"Die audiovisuelle Plattform TikTok bildet mittlerweile einen relevanten Aushandlungsort für soziale Gruppen aller Art. User*innen bietet sich die Möglichkeit, eigene Räume für Vernetzung zu schaffen und Identitätsmanagement zu betreiben. Aufgrund der Plattformaffordanzen – vor allem Multimod
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alität –bieten sich in der Theorie die Möglichkeit, auch dissente Diskurse über die eigenen Netzwerke hinaus zu teilen. So können auch geschichtsbezogene Inhalte, die beispielsweise den Holocaust delegitimieren oder Adolf Hitler heroisieren, ein Publikum jenseits der eigenen Ingroup erreichen. Der interdisziplinär gestaltete Beitrag möchte aus geschichtswissenschaftlicher Perspektive die Praktik der vergangenheitsbezogenen Hate Speech im Spannungsfeld von (Gegen-)Öffentlichkeiten in den Blick nehmen. Für die Untersuchung des Beobachtungsgegenstands auf der Plattform selbst wurde ein explorativer Zugang mit dem thematischen Fokus auf #Holocaust gewählt. Die daraus resultierenden Feldnotizen wurden mittels einer induktiven Inhaltsanalyse bearbeitet. Im Kontext dieser Betrachtung zeigt sich, dass Nutzer*innen auf multimodale Formate der Plattform zurückgreifen, um eigene Themen zu setzen und Netzwerke aufzubauen. Es wurden drei wesentliche Ebenen ausgemacht: (1) die Ebene der Kommentare, (2) die Ebene der Videos und (3) die Ebene der vernetzenden Medienhandlungen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Grenzen zwischen Öffentlichkeit(en) und Gegenöffentlichkeit(en) auf der Plattform flexibel sind und mäandern." (Abstract)
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"The Woman, Life, Freedom movement, beginning in September 2022, is a key chapter in the ongoing process of women’s rights activism in Iran. Social media has constituted a significant arena for asking for global solidarity with women in Iran since the initial days of this movement. The overall aim
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of this paper is to understand how TikTok users, including Iranian young women, have used the digital platform and transformed it into a virtual public space for media solidarity and transnational feminist activism. More precisely, it aims to shed light on how content creators, via their agency, rhetorically utilise and politicise the TikTok platform. In particular, we examine how they engage with audiences via the embodied form and affective performances in their attempt to persuade their audiences to viewership and solidarity action. The data in this paper consist of 107 top-ranked videos appearing under the hashtag #mahsaamini viewed through netnography, while the analytical method is multimodal rhetorical analysis with a focus on the mediality of the body in interaction. In addition, we adopt an embodied feminist framework and a decolonial perspective. The resulting analysis demonstrates how emotions function as one of the key elements in online mobilisation and protest in social media, not only as a motivational force but also as a part of the persuasive argument visually presented." (Abstract)
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"More than a dozen experts provide deep insights in stories, research reports, and geographical studies of digital literacy and inclusion models, all from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes engineering, social sciences, and education. Digital Literacy and Inclusion also highlights a show
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case of real-world digital literacy initiatives that have been adopted by communities of practice around the globe. Contributors explore myriad aspects and modalities of digital literacy: digital skills related to creativity, urban data literacy, digital citizenship skills, digital literacy in education, connectivity literacy, online safety skills, problem-solving and critical-thinking digital skills, data literacy skills, mobile digital literacy, algorithmic digital skills, digital health skills, etc. They share the principles and techniques behind successful initiatives and examine the dynamics and structures that enable communities to achieve digital literacy efficiently and sustainably." (Publisher description)
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"Soziale Medien haben die Verbreitung von Antisemitismus revolutioniert. Algorithmisch verstärkt verbreitet sich Antisemitismus auf den Plattformen in Sekundenschnelle, kostenlos und global. Die daraus resultierende Gefahr für Jüdinnen*Juden ist eine große gesellschaftliche Herausforderung. Das
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Buch gibt Einblicke in Fallstudien auf verschiedenen Plattformen und zeigt, wie soziale Medien durch die Verbreitung antisemitischer Inhalte von politischem Akteur*innen instrumentalisiert werden. Es werden innovative Methoden und Tools (CrowdTangle oder Voyant Tools) und neue Konzepte (Social Media Literacy, tertiärer Antisemitismus, antisemitische Eskalation) vorgestellt und Strategien, um Antisemitismus auf den Plattformen zu bekämpfen, kritisch evaluiert. Dieses Buch bietet eine umfassende Einführung für alle, die sich mit der Problematik Antisemitismus in den sozialen Medien auseinandersetzen wollen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Seit dem Terrorangriff der Hamas auf Israel am 7. Oktober 2023 spielen soziale Netzwerke eine bedeutende und vielfach unterschätzte Rolle bei der Verbreitung von Terrorpropaganda, Falschinformationen, Israelhass, Antisemitismus und Verschwörungsnarrativen. Die Bildungsstätte Anne Frank fasst in
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diesem Report, der im Februar 2024 publiziert wurde, die Beobachtungen relevanter Plattformen aus den ersten drei Monaten nach dem Terroranschlag in einer ad-hoc-Analyse zusammen. Der Report legt den Schwerpunkt auf TikTok – das unter Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen beliebteste und reichweitenstärkste Netzwerk– und schildert die drastischen Auswirkungen des TikTok-Konsums auf die politische Meinungsbildung der jungen Zielgruppe." (https://www.bs-anne-frank.de)
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"The appearance of new media and its enormous diffusion in the last decades of the 20th century and up to the present has greatly increased and diversified the reception of Egyptian themes and motifs and Egyptian influence in various cultural spheres. So-called popular or pop culture (cinema, genre
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fiction, TV-series, comics, graffiti, computer and video games, rock and heavy music, radio serials, among others) often makes use of narratives and motifs drawn from the observation and study of ancient Egypt, updated and reinterpreted in various ways, and which is now the subject of study by scholars of Egyptology. The present monograph seeks to provide new evidence of this interdisciplinarity between Egyptology and popular culture. It explores the conscious reinterpretation of the past in the work of contemporary authors, who shape an image of the Egyptian reality that in each case is determined by their own circumstances and contexts." (Publisher description)
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"Political and moral/religious contents are increasingly popular on TikTok, and the concerns associated with them create the premises for a re-exploration of the user–machine agency negotiation. Using algorithmic awareness as a process, this research examines the relationship between users’ awar
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eness of the TikTok algorithm and the main concerns associated with content that conveys political or moral/religious tenets. A survey of 329 Romanian students showed that greater algorithm awareness influences positive attitudes toward algorithms, but significantly stronger positive effects are observed between awareness and the two mediators related to political and moral/religious content perceived as contentious. Using Foucauldian insights on productive resistance, I argue that in-depth knowledge about the functionality of algorithms empower users to identify and subvert different forms of power, algorithmically mediated through political or religious content. When users perceive that they have enhanced agency over what they watch on TikTok, they feel that they can control potential concerns and consequently adopt positive attitudes toward algorithms and the overall platform. Foucault discusses pastoral power as a subtle form of power, designed to empty individuals of their deepest secrets. Similarly, such power is increasingly algorithmically mediated, given that digital machines enhance their agency in often nontransparent ways. Therefore, users’ awareness regarding the functionalities of algorithms allow them to combat the various mutations specific to pastoral power while encouraging them to adopt more positive attitudes toward algorithms in general." (Abstract)
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"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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"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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"This research analyzes the discursive characteristics of hate messages posted on TikTok Spain against people at risk of social exclusion. Using critical discourse analysis, we analyzed 679 hateful messages generated by 100 videos found about poverty. This method considered the social groups mention
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ed in those messages, actions attributed to them, the evaluative concepts associated with those actions, and the solutions proposed to eradicate this social problem. We used the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti to code, categorize, and analyze co-occurrences of derogatory terms. The analysis shows that poverty is linked to migration, laziness, and groups at risk of exclusion. Although insults and degrading terms take on a metaphorical form or are less prevalent, the call to violent action is explicit, openly advocating the extermination of these groups. Underlying these messages is a clear neo-Nazi ideology gaining ground with the advance of the extreme political Right." (Abstract)
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"[...] TikTok is much more than just a social network. Increasingly, it serves as a search engine, connecting its users with trends, music, and news—the latter in a significant way. Various studies indicate that TikTok has now become the primary news source for Gen Z, with this trend on the rise.
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Thus, the platform also offers an opportunity for journalists to reach an audience less engaged with traditional news mediums such as print, broadcast, and online journalism. Jacque Manabat recognised this opportunity and became the first Southeast Asian journalist to implement TikTok as a news platform. The former TV reporter and Adenauer Fellowship Program alumna began experimenting with the platform during the pandemic, drawing inspiration from numerous successful influencers on TikTok. The experiment succeeded: today, Jacque Manabat is an independent creator on TikTok. In an interview with Vanessa Buchmann, she discusses the initial resistance she faced, and why her courage ultimately paid off. The Filipina provides insights into what makes TikTok unique as a platform, shares what she has learned about the younger generation, and demonstrates how journalists can thrive there." (https://kas-media.asia)
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"Combining an innovative mix of traditional chapters, autoethnography, case studies, and dialogue within an intercultural framework, the handbook focuses on the future of media education and provides a deeper understanding of the challenges and affordances of media education as we move forward. Topi
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cs range from fighting disinformation, how vulnerable communities coped with disadvantages using media, transforming educational TV or YouTube to reach larger audiences, supporting students’ wellbeing through various online strategies, examining early childhood, parents, and media mentoring using digital tools, reflecting on educators’ intersectionality on video platforms, youth-produced media to fight injustice, teaching remotely and providing low-tech solutions to address the digital divide, search for solutions collaboratively using social media, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"Since the beginning of 2020, media around the world have started and intensified their TikTok activity to gain notoriety and reach young people, their main user group. However, as with other previously popularized social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, the platform’s logic is different from t
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hat traditionally employed by the media system when developing information products. The objective of this paper is to analyze the degree of adaptation to the logic of this network for the activity developed on it by the Spanish media. For this purpose, a combined methodology of quantitative and content analysis was applied to 446 videos posted by the official user accounts of 20 Minutos, Antena 3 Noticias, El Diario, El Mundo, and El País –the five media outlets with the largest online audience in that period –from the time the accounts were created until January 31, 2022. Specifically, we studied the activity developed, the notoriety achieved, and the interaction obtained, as well as the most common formats, topics, protagonists, and brand identity elements. The results show that the main Spanish media have tried to adapt to the entertainment logic of the platform both with the use of native editing resources as well as through the creation of original materials, predominantly soft news, about entertainment, celebrities, and lifestyle. The videos that gain more notoriety are those that are more adapted to this logic. However, the Spanish media analyzed post less frequently than international media, obtain fewer views, and register lower engagement levels; in addition, they do not use their presence on this social network to promote their other editorial products." (Abstract)
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"Afropessimism, or the western media tradition of covering Africa in stereotypically negative ways, has continually served to strip the continent of representational nuance and agency. While Africa experienced its own COVID-19 challenges during the pandemic, the Afropessimistic outlook of total coll
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apse and carnage did not become a reality. In fact, with the popular uptake of TikTok as the pandemic wore on, Africans began social media trends that kept many globally entertained as they navigated new lockdown realities. This study looks at three of these TikTok trends, namely #JerusalemaChallenge, DtRushChallenge and #DontLeaveMeChallenge. Through textual analysis, the study explores if and how these trends provided counternarratives to Afropessimism. With dominant themes such as humour and dance emerging, findings suggest that these trends offered content that can be read as contributing to challenging Afropessimism through cultivating African digital agency and representation." (Abtract)
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"In a cross-platform analysis of Google Web Search, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, 4chan and TikTok, we found that hyperpartisan web operators, alternative influencers and ambivalent commentators are in ascendency. The book can be read as a form of platform criticism. It puts on disp
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lay the current state of information online, noting how social media platforms have taken on the mantle of accidental authorities, privileging their own on-platform performers and at the same time adjudicating between claims of what is considered acceptable discourse." (Publisher description)
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