The TikTok Cultures Research Network held its third virtual event TikTok Methodologies that took place 19 July 2021 organised by founding members Associate Professor Crystal Abidin, Professor Patrik Wikström, and Dr Bondy Valdovinos Kaye. The event featured the network’s founding and international members offering insights on their TikTok research methodologies.
Speaker Bios
Adriana Amaral
Dr Adriana Amaral is an Adjunct Professor at Graduate and Post Graduate Program of Communication Sciences at School of Creative Industries of Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos University) in Brazil. She’s also a funded researcher at CNPq (Brazilian Federal Agency for Science and Technology) and DFG (German Research Foundation). Her research and publications focus is mainly on Digital Culture and Platforms, Fan Studies, Music Studies and Pop Culture in Brazilian context. She was a Visiting Scholar at University of Surrey (UK) and University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). She’s also is a Digital Media and Trends Consultant for the industries. E-mail: adriamaral[at]unisinos[dot]br
Xu Chen
Dr Xu Chen is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University. He achieved his doctoral degree at the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2020, and then joined Xiamen University in the same year. His research interests include platform studies, digital culture, and race, ethnicity and sexuality. Recent publications include peer-review journal articles on Information, Communication & Society, Mobile Media & Communication and Media International Australia.
Jin Lee
Dr Jin Lee studies media intimacies in social media cultures, particularly media practices and visibility of social minorities on various media platforms. She is a co-founding member of the TikTok Cultures Research Network and is conducting a project on TikTok cultures and industry in South Korea and East Asia at large, with A/Prof Crystal Abidin. Her work on media intimacies and influencer cultures appears in Communication, Culture & Critique, Convergence, Media International Australia, and Social Media + Society. She is a Research Fellow in Internet Studies at Curtin University, Australia. She tweets at @jinlee_media
Milovan Savic
Dr Milovan Savic is an author, speaker, and researcher. His research interests include youth, social media, family dynamics around digital devices, digital cultures, and digital citizenship. He has authored and co-authored several articles where his primary interest is the social construction of trending apps and dismantling of arbitrary or emotion-laden public discourses on digital technology. Milovan is passionate about making research easily accessible to non-academic audiences, policymakers and lay society alike. He can be reached via Twitter @nav0lim
Jorge Vázquez-Herrero
Dr Jorge Vázquez-Herrero is Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). PhD in Communication and Contemporary Information (USC). He is a member of Novos Medios research group and the Latin American Chair of Transmedia Narratives (ICLA, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina). He was visiting scholar at Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Universidade do Minho, University of Leeds and Tampere University. His research focuses on the impact of technology and platforms in digital journalism and narratives. His most recent publications deal with digital storytelling and innovation, fact-checking initiatives in digital journalism, and analysis of media and journalists on TikTok. He tweets at @jorgevh
Diana Zulli
Dr Diana Zulli is an assistant professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. Her research focuses on the interaction of communication theory, digital technology, and political rhetoric. She is interested in how communication theories function in, and are affected by, the rapidly changing digital communication environment, how digital technology affects social and political processes, and how news media shapes political discourse. Her work has been published in a number of venues including Communication Theory, New Media & Society, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Politics & Gender, and the International Journal of Communication, among others.
Moderators
Clare Southerton
Dr Clare Southerton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Vitalities Lab, Social Policy Research Centre and Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney. Her published research has explored the intersections of social media, privacy, surveillance and sexuality. Her current research projects are focused on how intimacy and collective affects are cultivated on platforms and with devices, and potentials in these spaces for health and sexuality education. Her work has been published in New Media & Society, Social Media + Society and The Journal of Sociology.
Wei Wang
Dr Wei Wang is a lecturer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her overarching research inquiry focuses on social transformations that define the contemporary era. She is interested in how, why, and for whom Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are designed, produced, and consumed. This is situated in the tensions between the neoliberalization of a globally networked economy and alternative socio-political practices. She is also interested in the social impact of ICTs, as ICTs are affecting different classes and social groups differently.
Organisers
Crystal Abidin
A/Prof Crystal Abidin is the founder of the TikTok Cultures Research Network. She is a digital anthropologist and ethnographer of vernacular internet cultures, and researches internet celebrity, influencer cultures, and social media pop cultures. She has published 5 books and over 60 articles and chapters on various aspects of internet cultures. Crystal is Associate Professor of Internet Studies, Principal Research Fellow, and ARC DECRA Fellow at Curtin University. For her public scholarship and continuous engagements with industry, Crystal was listed on ABC Top 5 Humanities Fellows (2020), Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia (2018), and Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30 (2016). Reach her at wishcrys.com
D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
Dr D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye is an early career researcher that recently completed his PhD in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology. His research interests include digital music, cultural policy, and platform studies. He has published work on TikTok in Chinese Journal of Communication, Mobile Media + Communication, and the International Journal of Communication. He is publishing a book on short video platforms with Dr. Jing Zeng and Prof. Patrik Wikström at Polity Press in 2022.
Patrik Wikström
Prof Patrik Wikström is Professor of Media and Communication, a computational social scientist and Director of QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre. His research is focused on developing data science tools and methods to analyse the production and consumption of digital cultural products – particularly music. He has (co)authored/(co)edited nine books on these topics over the years – Most recently he published the 3rd edition of ‘The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud’ at Polity Press and is working on a new book project about short video platforms to be published in 2022.
Organised by founding members A/Prof Crystal Abidin, Prof Patrik Wikström and Dr D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
This event was brought to you by TikTok Cultures Research Network and supported by Faculty of Humanities (Curtin University), Centre for Culture and Technology (Curtin University), and Digital Media Research Centre (Queensland University of Technology).
For enquiries, contact tiktokcultures@gmail.com
tiktokcultures.com/tiktok-methodologies
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