Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2183-2439

Article | Open Access

#ThisIsMeChallenge and Music for Empowerment of Marginalized Groups on TikTok

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Abstract:  Media convergence is generating many collective performances on social media, where the rise of short-form videos has created a new opportunity for the empowerment of society on online platforms. In this context, TikTok appears as an application for creative expression through music clips and lip-syncs. Through the #ThisIsMeChallenge hashtag, which introduces the musical theme of The Greatest Showman film, we analyze a new online practice within messages from traditionally marginalized groups throughout individual and collective life events. In order to understand TikTok as a music venue for social empowerment, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of 100 TikTok posts under the hashtag, and an artificial intelligence sentiment analysis across 8,877 comments. The results show a wide range of performance work that addresses issues of gender, sexual orientation, racial discrimination, and other types of current hate speech. In short, we conclude that TikTok has become a platform that seems to motivate activism and empowerment of marginalized groups through music frameworks that challenge social discrimination.

Keywords:  #ThisIsMeChallenge; empowerment; marginalized groups; social media; TikTok; transmedia music; video activism

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4715


© Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú, Ignacio Aguaded. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.