[Commlist] CFP: Flow Volume 27 Special Issue: "TikTok as a Cultural Forum"

Call for Papers:

Flow Volume 27 Special Issue: “TikTok as a Cultural Forum”


Over the past several months, social media platform TikTok has seen an 
enormous surge in users and popularity while simultaneously becoming the 
focus of concerns over national and digital security risks. While its 
users remain skewed to the teenage demographic, the app has disrupted a 
number of media industries and sparked cultural controversy. In the 
music industry, going viral on TikTok has become a prerequisite for 
singles hoping to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and in television, the 
app has entered the streaming wars. Chinese parent company ByteDance 
named Kevin Mayer, formerly in charge of streaming at Disney, as CEO of 
TikTok in June, and Netflix recently refined its quarterly new 
subscribers forecast in part due to what it perceives as 
<https://qz.com/1881983/netflix-says-tiktok-is-now-a-major-competitor/>TikTok’s 
astounding growth. But TikTok is only the latest new media application 
to affect legacy media industries. TikTok’s rise is replicating changes 
ushered in to user-generated and professional video content by platforms 
like YouTube, Vine, and Snapchat. And as a social networking platform, 
TikTok offers a new avenue for grassroots activism, community formation, 
and builds seemingly overnight fame for its breakout stars. However, it 
also exists within a contested digital space, in which concerns have 
been raised over cultural appropriation, privacy, online toxicity, and 
racism.


This inaugural issue of Flow’s twenty-seventh volume, “TikTok as a 
Cultural Forum,” asks media scholars to consider the rise of TikTok from 
cultural, industrial, technological, digital, political, historical, and 
national lenses. This special issue raises the question of what makes 
TikTok unique in its rapid ascent to cultural ubiquity and aims to 
assess the cultural and industrial impacts of TikTok’s rise. How might 
the proliferation of TikTok force scholars to rethink the significance 
of digital identities through lenses of race, gender, and sexual 
orientation? In what ways does the white co-optation of choreography and 
language by Black creators find historical precedent in legacies of 
cultural appropriation, disputes over authorial credit, and 
discrepancies in how cultural production and audiences are valued within 
the media industries? How might we discuss the connections between teen 
and young adult mental health, TikTok community formation, and social 
distancing during a global health pandemic? What are the 
responsibilities and practices of platforms like TikTok to stand against 
being a host of online toxicity, white supremacy, and other extremist 
groups in online spaces? How is TikTok activism different from past 
forms of online advocacy and community organizing? How and to what 
extent are established media brands rethinking digital content 
strategies to incorporate or compete against TikTok? Possible topics 
include, but are by no means limited to:


  *

    Trailblazing texts, sounds, dances, and figures on TikTok

  *

    Digital identities, influencer branding, celebrity, and
    professionalization

  *

    Authorship, “Sounds,” and Choreography

  *

    TikTok Challenges and Trends

  *

    Race, Gender, and LGBTQ constructs on TikTok

  *

    Algorithms, Filters, and Technology

  *

    TikTok activism, social change, and political communication

  *

    The music industry, artist promotion, and viral singles

  *

    Policy and discourses of digital security in global/national
    regulation of TikTok

  *

    Terms of Service and Copyright on Platforms

  *

    Generational divides

  *

    TikTok and comedy

  *

    Historical comparisons of Tiktok to other media forms


To be considered for this timely issue, please submit a completed short 
essay of 1200-1500 words, along with at least three images (.gif or 
.png) or embeddable video/audio links. We will be able to embed TikTok 
videos into the column, so please feel free to be creative! Send your 
column, media files or links, and a short bio, to Maggie Steinhauer and 
Nathan Rossi at (flowjournaleditors /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(floweditors /at/ gmail.com)>by Sunday, September 13th, 2020. The 
Special Issue will be published at flowjournal.org 
<http://www.flowjournal.org/>on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

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