TikTok as Television

Abstract

As much as users and advertisers have flocked to it, TikTok has been a success. To this point, research on TikTok has been concerned with the nature of TikTok texts and the ways that laterally organized networks on TikTok have intermedia interface points. Instead of focusing on the text or the authors, this article argues that Raymond Williams concept of flow is critical for an initial characterization of a social media platform, proposing and implementing a Markov process model for critical media studies of the experience of TikTok flow. The result of this analysis challenges many commonly held ideas about what TikTok “is” and offers evidence that TikTok is television, not social media. We argue that this shift of perspective is important for advancing understanding of this platform.