Kim Lisa Röding & Juliane Götz (MLU Halle-Wittenberg)
Abstract:
Over 120 million US citizens use TikTok (Statista 2024), with young adults especially watching short videos of people dancing, lip synching, or sharing their opinions on trending topics. TikTok has not only become the biggest online platform for creating and sharing content online but has also been shaping public opinion regarding political decisions around the world. The social media app feeds its users content tailored to their preferences, contributing to the widening gap between opposing political camps. While some creators claim to share the truth about political leaders, others arbitrarily spread misinformation to influence election outcomes without their consumers’ awareness. Despite its policy prohibiting political advertisement, TikTok users find ways to disparage one candidate or promote another.
This workshop aims to develop a tool for students and teachers to analyze TikTok videos with influential content, using the 2024 Presidential Elections as an example. After an introduction to the US electoral system and the two-party system, students will examine political content on the platform and create valid criteria to evaluate TikToks sharing political views on the presidential candidates. The videos will be analyzed not only for their content and argumentation but also for the format and performance of the creator or others featured. In the end, students will be tasked with creating their own TikTok-like videos promoting opinions they support.
Works Cited
DataReportal, We Are Social, and Meltwater. “Countries with the largest TikTok audience as of July 2024 (in millions) [Graph].” Statista, 31 Jul 2024, http://www.statista.com/statistics/1299807/number-of-monthly-unique-tiktok-users/.
DataReportal, & We Are Social, & Meltwater. (July 31, 2024). Countries with the largest TikTok audience as of July 2024 (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved September 03, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299807/number-of-monthly-unique-tiktok-users/
Bio:
Juliane Götz is a research assistant at the English Didactics department at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). In 2019, she graduated with a degree in English Studies, Education Studies and Political Sciences from MLU. During her studies, she was teaching English at different levels in Germany as well as German as a Foreign Language at Winterbourne International Academy in Bristol, UK, in 2014/15. Additionally, she joined a research team of the Political Didactics department in a project on democratic education at secondary schools in Saxony-Anhalt. After graduating, she went on to teach English and Social Studies at secondary school level. Since 2021, she has been pursuing a PhD in English Didactics. Her research focuses on conversation analysis of teacher-student-interaction led by pre-service teachers.
Kim Röding studied English, Physical Education and Italian at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of New Mexico. She wrote her thesis on “Teaching 9/11 – Eine Unterrichtsreihe für die gymnasiale Oberstufe zu den Ereignissen und Folgen des 11. September 2001”. During her studies, she worked as a student assistant and took up opportunities to teach English as a Foreign Language at several German schools as well as an American high school. She recently joined the English Institute at Martin-Luther-University as an assistant researcher in the field of English Didactics and looks forward to realizing her interest in the potential of short films for the EFL classroom in a PhD project. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, baking, drawing, painting, and doing sports. She is a member of a track and field team and plays Ultimate Frisbee.