TikTok is a Chinese-owned social media channel mainly used to circulate short videos. It was first launched in 2016 and works in 40 different languages. With around 1 billion active users spread over 154 countries (as a comparison Facebook has almost 2 billion users), TikTok carries the title of being one of the most used social media platforms nowadays. TikTok plays an important role in digital activism due to the diversity of users and the enormous reach and popularity,
Dear readers, Thank you for your loyalty throughout these months of our blog posting live from Scotland, Malawi, Australia, Jordan, and Singapore. As with every great story, it needs to reach a (happy?) end. While we are all moving on with our lives, both online and offline, we have decided …
Dear readers, As I am writing this blog a 6-hour power cut has forced me to leave my house and walk to the nearest coffee shop with a power backup. I am lucky to not only live close to such a café (walking isn’t much fun when it’s 37 degrees …
Dear readers, in June 2020, one blurry and unsophisticated TikTok video by a 51-year-old #TikTokGrandma (Laupp, 2020; Magid 2020), derailed Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when it went viral and mobilised people to falsely register for the stadium event, leaving a majority of the event’s seats empty. In the …
Dear readers, an investigation from the British Broadcasting Corporation – the BBC – has found that Syrian families have been livestreaming on the popular social media platform TikTok, which has a user count of more than 1 billion in 154 countries (Ruby, 2022), for several hours daily. These families, however, …
Dear readers, it seems like the bad news never stop coming. First, we read them in the newspapers, then on the radio and television, on our computer screens, and in recent years on the display of tiny devices that were promised to bring us so much joy and which should …
Dear readers, I’m an experienced broadcast journalist and now a Communications Specialist in the development sector, but never before have I had to invest so much of my identity to produce such brief content as for my 13-second video for this blog (go on, watch and have a giggle). One …
When you feel done with social media but… Dear readers, researching online and digital activism from the point of view of a person who tries to avoid social media as much as possible seems like an interesting task in itself. I do have Facebook and Instagram accounts although my activity …
Dear readaers, it is a lazy Saturday and a lazy Saturday means I’m probably watching TikTok number 372. Sounds like a lot, it probably is. But then I do know now how I can cook the perfect crispy chicken, how I should let go of what weighs me down, how …
Dear readers, earlier this week I found myself awkwardly perched at the foot of my bed, on the floor, bent close to a PowerPoint to charge my tiring mobile phone so I could record myself making strange hand signals in time to the music in what was to become my …
