Australian experiences of algorithmic culture on TikTok

Overview

Join a world-leading research team examining how recommender systems are shaping personalised and shared experiences of algorithmic culture in Australia. The project is focused on TikTok and engages with both professional TikTok creators and users using innovative computational and traditional research approaches.

The empirical work is structured into three streams:

• In the Platform Stream we observe the type of content TikTok recommends on the least-personalised version of the platform, to create a close-to-generic baseline of the Australian experience of algorithmic culture on TikTok.
• In the Audiences Stream work with personal platform data, donated by TikTok users participating in the study as ‘citizen scientists’. We combine this data with a set of in-depth interviews with a subset of our participating TikTok users.
• In the Creators Stream we generate data from a panel of Australian-based creators participating in the study. Our creator panel is a mixture of independent content creators, alongside those who have professional representation through our partner Amplify, a Sydney-based social media agency. Similar to the Audiences Stream, we combine both computational and traditional methods in this stream.

This research topic is connected with the Australian experiences of algorithmic culture on TikTok (PhD Scholarship).

Research activities

As a PhD student in this project you will work across the Platform and Audience Streams (defined above). You are able to define your own specific research questions within these two streams. Contact the supervisors to discuss your specific ideas. As a starting point for these discussions you may want to consider the topic of how TikTok ‘challenges’ are recommended over time, and for different users.

Outcomes

The project is funded by the Australia Research Council to generate the following outcomes:

• The first longitudinal and systematic study of how recommender systems are shaping cultural experiences on TikTok in Australia and how Australian users and content creators perceive and rationalise these processes.
• Methodological innovation that bridges the gaps between universal and individual perspectives, goes beyond time-limited ‘snapshot’ studies, and advances citizen science for the digital environment.
• Empirical evidence translated into actionable findings and recommendations to underpin effective evidence-based policymaking.

Skills and experience

We are looking for a student with a recent Master in Communication and Media Studies or in a related field. We believe you have an interest to learn both quantitative and qualitative research methods and we expect you to have at least some experience of computational research methods, such as collecting and analysing data from social media platforms. Contact the supervisors if you have any questions about these criteria.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

• recommender systems
• TikTok
• digital culture
• data analysis

Contact

Contact Professor Patrik Wikstrom via email patrik.wikstrom@qut.edu.au