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Hypertext theory from the 1990s and database theory from the 2000s still provide a useful foundation for explaining new authoring practices on the video-sharing platform TikTok, but this earlier literature may underestimate the importance of labour. Because hyperlinking is automated on the platform whenever composers select filters, hashtags, audio clips, and author references to other videos for “stitching” and “dueting” to remix from pre-existing databases of material, TikTok is characterised by rich attributional practices of citation. At the same time, the site’s users are keenly aware that search and recommendation algorithms may not showcase their published materials and that additional labour may be required for their contributions to be visible in the larger hyperlinked matrix of database participation. Users may also choose to de-link their content or the content of others. Case studies are drawn from variations of the 2020 “main character” meme, a 2023 moral panic about a supposedly dangerous TikTok “boat jumping” “trend”, and Ukrainian “war influencers”.
Elizabeth Losh (Fri,) studied this question.