A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
Trevor Boffone examines the use of TikTok by musical theatre fans to illustrate the digital afterlives of popular Broadway shows.
Read moreTrevor Boffone recounts a harrowing experience traveling back from Japan with a cohort of high school students. Dr. Boffone became a viral news story through the storytelling affordances of TikTok. He reflects upon these affordances, positioning the platform as a site of agency and self-determination.
Read moreNina Linhales Barker discusses the complications of Latina fans wanting to see themselves represented in Netflix’s Bridgerton.
Read moreMoa Eriksson Krutrök explores the ways social media like TikTok can offer individuals social support to process grief and trauma. Unfortunately, meme culture can radically recontextualize the personal and exploit already vulnerable people.
Read moreDrawing on examples such as NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert and Instagram’s Verzuz battles, Alyx Vesey explores how musicians have utilized online platforms as alternatives to live concerts in the age of COVID-19.
Read moreThe cottagecore trend is finding new expression on Tiktok as users present highly curated visions of domesticity. Caroline N. Bayne explores the myths in cottagecore aesthetics and the ways in which they present the home as a sacred space untroubled by the world of work.
Read moreThough TikTok’s algorithm appears to be highly personalized by your taste, the company’s algorithm may not have this in mind. Andrea Ruehlicke investigates issues of agency and implications of presuming the personal is self-determined.
Read moreLooking at artists like Lil Nas X, Abigail Barlow, and Absofacto, Meghan Grosse explores how viral success on TikTok is affecting the mainstream music industry.
Read moreUsing the Chicago Bull’s Mascot, Benny the Bull, as a case study, James Bingaman considers how TikTok is used in NBA branding to create parasocial bonds with fans.
Read moreLuis Loya and Elaine Almeida utilize Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) to understand how hashtags and duet/remix affordances connect the multiplicity of queer identity performances across TikTok.
Read moreThrough the case study of songwriter and vocalist Sophie Fraser, D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye explores how accidental virality on TikTok can influence digital identities, professionalization, and unexpectedly lead to new career opportunities for musicians.
Read moreJessica Sage Rauchberg examines how shadowbanning and algorithmic moderation affect disabled users on TikTok, arguing that these practices erase and suppress user content.
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