TikTok (Anti) Democracies: Self-making, Skepticism, and Political Expression among Young People (TikTokCracy)

In our digitalized society, there is a crucial need to understand the complex impacts of social media platforms such as TikTok for redefinitions of democracy and the audio-visual political language. Short video form and its specific styles, aesthetics, and narratives has gained vast popularity as entertainment and consequently made TikTok one of the platforms, where election campaigns and grassroots movements take place. TikTok provides tools for self-expression, exchange, and community building but also for disinformation, polarization and hate speech.

The project investigates the complex relationship between TikTok and democracy from the perspective of young people (aged 18–29): how young people’s practices of creating and consuming short videos on TikTok affect both their views on democracy and the democratic process as a whole. Young people account for the most active users of TikTok, they are both influencers and a target of influence, as well as those who shape the future of democracy.

The research introduces a new analytical concept TikTokCracy, meaning digitalized, redefined, and challenged democracy, mediated by TikTok. The research bridges perspectives from sociological youth research, (social) media studies, and democracy studies. The methodology is based on digital ethnography and co-research, and it experiments with an audiovisual-embodied method on how to use short video form at all stages of the research.