Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism
Platformisation has facilitated the emergence of new rhetorical spaces where activists can creatively structure and present their political statements according to medium-specific affordances. In this article, we examine a group of activists on TikTok who topicalise gender-based violence and gender...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2024-09-01
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| Series: | Nordic Journal of Media Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0002 |
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| author | Sigurdardottir Heba Rautajoki Hanna |
| author_facet | Sigurdardottir Heba Rautajoki Hanna |
| author_sort | Sigurdardottir Heba |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Platformisation has facilitated the emergence of new rhetorical spaces where activists can creatively structure and present their political statements according to medium-specific affordances. In this article, we examine a group of activists on TikTok who topicalise gender-based violence and gender inequality through multimodal means of communication in short videos. We approached these videos as rhetorical arenas for communicating compelling messages with the aim of appealing to the audience. We used digital ethnography, multimodal discourse analysis, and approaches to the mediality of the body to conduct our investigation and analyses. Our results explicate how affective cues and bodily signals are put to rhetorical and political use in TikTok stories to pursue social change. That is, bodily performances stage interrelational positionings in a visual format, conveying affective evaluations and judgements about the state of the world and forming rhizomatic threads of messages to mobilise support and to affirm identification among the members of the movement. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ba14b60fa34b40adb3e362f97fdb3522 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2003-184X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-09-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of Media Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-ba14b60fa34b40adb3e362f97fdb35222025-02-02T15:48:44ZengSciendoNordic Journal of Media Studies2003-184X2024-09-0161113510.2478/njms-2024-0002Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activismSigurdardottir Heba0Rautajoki Hanna1Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, FinlandFaculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, FinlandPlatformisation has facilitated the emergence of new rhetorical spaces where activists can creatively structure and present their political statements according to medium-specific affordances. In this article, we examine a group of activists on TikTok who topicalise gender-based violence and gender inequality through multimodal means of communication in short videos. We approached these videos as rhetorical arenas for communicating compelling messages with the aim of appealing to the audience. We used digital ethnography, multimodal discourse analysis, and approaches to the mediality of the body to conduct our investigation and analyses. Our results explicate how affective cues and bodily signals are put to rhetorical and political use in TikTok stories to pursue social change. That is, bodily performances stage interrelational positionings in a visual format, conveying affective evaluations and judgements about the state of the world and forming rhizomatic threads of messages to mobilise support and to affirm identification among the members of the movement.https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0002multimodal communicationbodily rhetorictiktokfeminist activismcultural politics |
| spellingShingle | Sigurdardottir Heba Rautajoki Hanna Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism Nordic Journal of Media Studies multimodal communication bodily rhetoric tiktok feminist activism cultural politics |
| title | Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism |
| title_full | Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism |
| title_fullStr | Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism |
| title_short | Embodying scenes of moral disorder: Bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist TikTok activism |
| title_sort | embodying scenes of moral disorder bodily gestures as a site of signification in feminist tiktok activism |
| topic | multimodal communication bodily rhetoric tiktok feminist activism cultural politics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2024-0002 |
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