Academics as TikTok Creators?!: Knowledge and Research Dissemination, Connection, and Decommodification

Asynchronous Brief Paper ID: 61328
  1. aaa
    Ramona Maile Cutri
    Brigham Young University
  2. Erin F. Whiting
    Brigham Young University

Abstract: Academics, faculty at institutions of higher education, across disciplines are using the social media app TikTok. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a restructuring of how academics distribute their expertise in publishing and teaching and how they connect with their students and peers, but more research is needed on how and why academics are using social media platforms generally, and in particular TikTok. TikTok challenges its content creators to work within the short-video format, and academics are rising to that challenge. The creations, motivations, and implications of academics on TikTok must be further examined so that we can better understand the affordances and tensions of social media platforms’ use in higher education. This asynchronous brief paper presentation will show example TikToks created by academics and present items from a survey designed for academics who are successful and persistent content creators on TikTok. Attendees will have the opportunity to review and critique the survey items and contribute to an ongoing discussion of issues derived from the literature related to academics’ use of social media platforms.

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