Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2024, Media Arts and Studies

Aesthetic trends have been rising in popularity amongst Gen Z young women online, promoting different personas and self-categorization consisting of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, color palettes, music taste, and personality. These trends are fleeting, and tend to manifest on social media platforms, namely Instagram and TikTok. Though there is some sincerity and fun behind these trends, there is also an underlying tie to consumerism, which women have been historically targeted by. This project presents outlooks of undergraduate young women and an expert in the field to explore the affects these trends may have on sense of self, as well as consumption habits. The general consensus to the popularity of aesthetic trends is an attribution to influencer culture and the need to fit in. Following discussions about this phenomenon, interviewees reflected on its unsustainable and unrealistic nature, and suggested that women should be seen as multifaceted. They encouraged the need to take inspiration from trending aesthetics while maintaining a sense of self and uniqueness.

Committee: Beth Novak (Advisor); Viktoria Viktorova Marinova (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Media

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Geography

Despite ongoing geopolitical concerns and influence of big data companies, this research focuses on the everyday practices on TikTok that reveal different aspects of the platform's use. This research explores the impact of TikTok on the lives of Bhutanese-Nepali women residing in Central Ohio. Through six ethnographic interviews with Bhutanese-Nepali women – who use TikTok to showcase their–everyday domestic practices – this study reveals how TikTok practices facilitate (digital) placemaking, fostering a sense of belonging for relocated refugees living in the suburbs. By contextualizing the history of displacement from Bhutan to Nepal and the US, and mapping relocation patterns from urban areas to suburbs, I illustrate how these recent movements can traced within online practices of Bhutanese-Nepali refugees. While acknowledging the potential risks of manipulation and public scrutiny associated with sharing content on a public platform, Bhutanese-Nepali women demonstrate adeptness in navigating and leveraging the algorithm, showcasing their agency and resilience both online and offline.

Committee: Madhumita Dutta (Advisor); Teresa Teresa Lynch (Committee Member); Kendra McSweeney (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Geography; South Asian Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Transmasculine identities on the social media app TikTok have recently popularized use of the app's video-centered format to perform masculinity in more fluid and/or anarchistic ways. One result is an increase in femme expressions of transmasculinity which minimize or even directly contradict hegemonic masculine norms. To explore how femininity is constructed to assert one's transmasculinity, I will analyze the ways TikTok's multimodality as well as creators' visual gendered performances serve as tools for constructing an online trans identity beyond a gender binary. This thesis defines multimodal constructions of transmasculinity, theorizes potential effects of femme transmasculinity, and assesses how differences in racial identity influence presentation of femme transmasculinity. In doing so, I determine that the multimodality of TikTok allows transmasculine TikTok creators to construct counter-hegemonic performances that guide viewers on how to read and interpret gender existing beyond the gender binary.

Committee: Mary Thomas (Advisor); Jian Neo Chen (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; Multimedia Communications; Womens Studies

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Communication

This study was conducted to investigate how the use of TikTok impacts Black American Muslim teen girls body image and identity. The analysis of twelve one-on-one interviews with girls aged thirteen to eighteen revealed the dialectical tensions girls experience in this stage of their identity formation and experience of embodiment. While TikTok use is often viewed as negatively impacting their psychosocial development, this study found some positive benefits. This implies that media platforms and media use can aid positive body education.

Committee: Omotayo Banjo Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Nancy Jennings Ph.D. (Committee Member); Eric Jenkins Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications

MFIS, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Individuals are exposed to viral fashion trends daily on social media channels like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. This study focuses specifically on Generation Z (Gen Z) and their purchase intentions regarding viral fashion trends on the popular social media channel TikTok. This study aims to better understand how the virality of a video on TikTok impacts the purchase intention of Generation Z(Gen Z) through examining parasocial interaction, perceived expertise, and trustworthiness of the content creator. A viral and nonviral video posted by two different influencers of the same gender/ethnicity was delivered to participants, followed by a survey regarding the participants' purchase intention guided by the influencer's trustworthiness, perceived expertise, and parasocial interaction with the audience. Approximately 421 Gen Z students at a large Midwest university were given a 26-question survey through the online platform, Qualtrics. The results are expected to not only identify the current questions surrounding Gen Z's purchase intentions based on trustworthiness, perceived expertise, and parasocial interaction with viral fashion trends viewed on TikTok but The results will also suggest a possible strategy or strategies to create viral marketing content that is critical for marketers to reach large audiences and build brand awareness.

Committee: Lauren Copeland Ph.D. (Advisor); Krissi Riewe Stevenson (Committee Member); Gargi Bhaduri Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing; Social Research; Technology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

First available in the US in 2017, TikTok is a relatively new social media platform. This, however, has not prevented it from playing a massive role in people's socialization. Although some hail social media as the end of the culture industry's tyranny, the fundamental logic of capitalist ownership and production still guides TikTok, as evidenced by the prevalence of advertising, data collection, and censorship on the platform. In capitalist society, ubiquitous hints of emancipation that are often eclipsed by realities of alienation and manipulation lead people to crave something "real," or "authentic” – perhaps explaining the latter term's status as a buzzword in TikTok discourse. With authenticity being a socially constructed designation, I aim to discern the criteria people employ to determine (in)authenticity on TikTok. I ground my critique in the Frankfurt School to explore how determinations of authenticity reinforce or subvert capitalist reality. To gather data, I conducted a “scavenger hunt” study of 238 people in which they provided links to videos they deemed fake and authentic alongside justifications for why they thought a video was apt. After coding justifications with a Systematic Thematic Discovery approach, I found that most definitions of authenticity (relatability, vulnerability, good marketing…) reinforce the capitalist status quo; however, some – like the tendency to see profiteering as fake – suggest that “seeing through” is possible. This has notable implications for the creation of echo chambers, the formation of identity, and the definition of reality in capitalist society.

Committee: Thomas Vander Ven (Committee Chair); Howard Welser (Committee Member); Matthew Rosen (Committee Member); Cynthia Anderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Media and Communication

This cross-cultural comparison study between China and the U.S. aimed to examine the short video-sharing social media platform, TikTok/Douyin, particularly its use in the two countries. Other than analyzing how people use the short video app platform and their influencer video use, the study further explored how cultural values influenced user behaviors on TikTok/Douyin. Using Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions as a theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of cultural differences on the gender fit expectation and influencers' endorsement effectiveness (product attitude and purchase intention) between China and the U.S. An online survey was conducted in each country. In general, Chinese participants were more likely to be persuaded by influencers to make purchase decisions than US participants. Unexpectedly, Chinese participants claimed a higher individualism score and a lower power distance score than US participants, which contradicts with Hofstede's original cultural scores for each country. The findings supported that participants' gender fit expectations positively predicted influencers' endorsement effectiveness, and Chinese users were more influenced than the U.S. users. Besides, the influencer's expertise-product congruency and gender congruency impacted people's product attitudes and purchase intentions independently for the gendered product, and expertise congruency was less influential than gender congruency. The impact of influencers varies by consumers gender, influencers' gender, and consumers' age. In both countries, old users were more easily persuaded than young users. Male influencers more influenced the US TikTok users, both male and female. In China, female influencers were more persuasive than male influencers among male and female Douyin users. Therefore, marketing practitioners should consider the demographic characteristics and user preferences of TikTok and Douyin for their marketing practices. In addition, the study confirmed th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Louisa Ha Ph.D. (Committee Chair); J.P. Oehrtman Ph.D. (Other); Ilyoung Ju Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Comparative; Gender; Mass Communications

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2022, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis explores the online communities on YouTube and TikTok dedicated to books, known as BookTube and BookTok, which have given literature a sustained relevance in the age of the Internet and caused skyrocketing success for many books and authors. The first research question of this study seeks to investigate the motivations behind the young adult community who read books for pleasure, and the second posits whether motivations for reading among this audience are hedonistic or eudaimonic in nature. Finally, the third research question explores how YouTube and TikTok have shaped the cultural discourse on reading books in the Digital Age. The theoretical basis for this study is grounded in uses and gratifications theory, mood management theory, and eudaimonic effects. I collected a total of 611 videos and comments from YouTube and TikTok and conducted a textual analysis and critical discourse analysis, grouping videos and comments into themes to understand the content of both platforms. Results showed that there were several primary motivations for young adult readers, including achievement, escapism, and social interaction. There was a consistent measure of hedonistic motivations for reading, such as the desire for aesthetic beauty and comforting stories, as well as eudaimonic motivations, including catharsis and connection with others. Additionally, YouTube was shown to have higher numbers of subscribers to individual YouTube channels, while TikTok had higher general audience numbers for its videos. These results supported the premise of uses and gratifications theory, while showing evidence of both hedonistic and eudaimonic motivations. Furthermore, while there was overlap in communication styles and content themes for YouTube and TikTok, each community had unique features that allowed users to discuss and interact with stories in different ways.

Committee: Victoria LaPoe (Committee Chair); Rosanna Planer (Committee Member); Kelly Ferguson (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Media and Communication

TikTok is a recent social phenomenon that has transformed the social media landscape and fundamentally changed the way that people interact with content. The popular social media platforms used in the west are banned in China through regulations on the internet, with similar alternatives of their own. In combination with the high discoverability and often more raw depictions of everyday life and people available on TikTok, there is an opportunity for China related content on the platform to present a different image. This study first utilizes a brief content analysis to determine what type of China related content is being viewed the most on TikTok and how it represents Chinese people. The most viewed China TikTok videos portray the country and people with largely either a positive or neutral tone, and content is seemingly diverse across the videos. A survey then measured college students use of TikTok, national image of China, opinions on media about the country, and reaction to two China related TikToks. National image was shown to be positively correlated with both how much participants liked the videos they were shown and whether they see China related content as authentic. Additionally, national image was positively correlated with participants' perception of the U.S. and China having a good relationship. Republican leaning participants have a more negative image of China than Democrat leaning participants. The generally low reported encounter with China content on social media cannot fully reveal the impact of exposure on user's national image on China. The positive attitude toward China related TikTok videos by participants shows the potential of TikTok to act as a tool to form the images and opinions of nations, as well as how the feed and specific content may increase exposure to other country's content.

Committee: Louisa Ha Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Rick Busselle Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2022, English

This thesis explores the potential of reviving elocutionary practices within modern composition pedagogy by explicitly connecting the 18th-century elocutionary theories of Thomas Sheridan to multimodality—with a focus on elucidating the implicit elocutionary pedagogies of tone and gesture circulating on TikTok. I argue composition scholars may borrow from and adapt reformist elocutionary and TikTok practices to create a more equitable pedagogy. Chapter one of this thesis builds upon the works of contemporary scholars such as Butler, Porter, and Kimmerer (among others) to form a theory of delivery and embodied rhetorics. Chapter two applies these theories to the works of Thomas Sheridan, one of the founding elocutionists and prominent educators of the 18th century, analyzing how he looked to expand the definition of knowledge-making to include embodied rhetorics before the term “multiliteracies'' was coined (New London Group, 1997), and modern technological advancements were invented. Chapter three examines how TikTok content creators have seemingly revived and expanded upon Sheridan's theories to teach the general public how to use tone and gesture in accessible ways as rhetorical tools of activism. Finally, chapter four offers a multimodal, embodied remix of this thesis, providing full lesson plans, suggested readings, and supplemental materials for instructor use.

Committee: Jason Palmeri (Committee Chair); Tim Lockridge (Committee Member); Emily Legg (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; History; Rhetoric; Teaching

MFIS, Kent State University, 2022, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

NINA KESIC, M.F.I.S., APRIL 2022 DESIGN APPROPRIATION IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PLATFORM TO AID DESIGNERS Director of Thesis: Mourad Krifa, Ph.D. As social media platforms continue to evolve, new opportunities become available to share content. For fashion designers, showcasing designs on social media is a great way to spread brand awareness and generate greater engagement levels. However, housing design content online can also subject independent designers to design piracy or appropriation. Faced with such practices and with no legal recourse, independent designers have taken to social media as a tool to express their grievances with being victims of design appropriation. The objectives of this study are (1) to investigate how designers can (and do) use social media to combat copying of their designs, and (2) to identify what the overall user response is to these social media callouts. A sample of TikTok videos was collected from independent designers sharing personal accounts about this issue. The videos were coded for different response types, in which most of the responses exhibited a negative tone. However, the social media category presented a more positive tone, indicating that designers found the use of social media helpful in combating this issue. The results of this study provide insight on the effects that design appropriation has on independent designers and how the fashion industry can collectively work on a solution for this rampant issue.

Committee: Mourad Krifa (Advisor); Jihyun Kim-Vick (Committee Member); Lauren Copeland (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Music Ethnomusicology

This thesis is an exploration of the sounds of the queer side of TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform, driven by user-generated audio-visual content that is delivered through the “For You” page's individually curated algorithm. As such, TikTok is uniquely situated as a social media network that inadvertently creates online communities situated around not only common interests but the trends and sounds that accompany them. Within TikTok's queer community, sounds present avenues for exploring and performing gendered and sexual identities as well as developing preexisting queer-coded communications. These sounds also serve as opportunities to raise issues of gender identity, race, and inclusivity within the LGBTQ+ community. This work is centered on case studies of TikTok sounds and their accompanying trends, each supporting a critical analysis of queer TikTok spaces as indicative of a need for intersectionality within the queer community.

Committee: Katherine Meizel Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heather Strohschein Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sidra Lawrence Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; Music

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Each year social media usage increases which creates new opportunities for marketers to promote their products and brands. Sports teams and athletes are joining social media platforms and creating their own unique accounts (Cooper, 2015). Fans and followers, new and old, are discovering these teams and athletes while building relationships (Kentrin, 2020). Social media has also proven to be a useful tool in building two-way relationships between teams and spectators (Joanna & Zuzanna, 2020). This has also reigned true in building a team or personal athlete brand (Witz, 2020). Through different sports marketing social media strategies, marketers are learning how to engage fans, increase attendance, and stand apart from other teams (O'Hallarn et al., 2016). The manner in which a fan behaves and engages with different teams and athletes is influenced by social interactions, deals, promotions, giveaways, and relationships with teams and athletes (Fink et al., 2002; Perrault, 2016). Through new applications (apps), athletes and fans are spending more time online (Samet, 2020). These apps allow fans to witness new sides to athletes and teams through increased content which, consequently, helps form connections between fans and athletes (Sharpe et al., 2020). This research analyzed the relationships between teams' and leagues' social media presence on fan behavior by conducting in-depth one-on-one interviews with professionals working in the sports industry at the professional and collegiate levels. A total of eight professionals were interviewed from eight different sports. Questions asked specifically addressed how social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok have affected ticket sales, fan attendance/tune-in rates, engagement, brand loyalty, and merchandise purchases. Using content analysis, best practices were determined for increasing engagement and fan behavior and understanding the relationships crea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Julie Szendrey (Advisor); Nina Rytwinski (Committee Co-Chair); Patricia Berg (Other) Subjects: Marketing; Sports Management

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Media and Communication

This project examined traditional gendered discourses surrounding the ends and means of sexuality, the emerging role of digital sexual technologies in purported sexual empowerment, and the socio-material aspects which revolve around these technologies, sexual medias, and sexual discourses. Combining critical feminist insights with media ecology, this project explored happenings within the sociosexually violent pre- and present-COVID-19 United States ecology, documenting novel and rigorous contributions in our increasingly algorithmic world. This study of the U.S. context critiques foundational constructs created by Enlightenment decisionmakers who rationalized colonial rhetorics and logics built into each preceding iteration of capitalisms from industrialism into neoliberalism since national origin. As such, it extends critiques of mechanistic models of the human body and sexual communications and situates them within the vastly uncriminalized sexual violences, as well as insufficient sexual education standards. Theoretically, I argue that a mechanization of humans has occurred, been pushed to its extreme, and is flipping into a humanization of objects. To demonstrate this, I critical feminist rhetorically analyzed 75 biomimetic sextech advertisements from the brand Lora DiCarlo, contextualizing them in salient discourses within 428 present-COVID-19 TikTok videos, investigating: “What rhetorical themes occur within advertisements for biomimetic sexual technologies marketed to vulva-havers in the late-stage present-COVID-19 neoliberal U.S. landscape?” “How have biomimetic sexual technologies marketed to vulva-havers effected how their sexual experiences are created and maintained in the sociosexual U.S. landscape?” and “How are biomimetic sextech changing vulva-havers sexual sense-making, experiences, and relations within the sexually violent late-stage capitalist present-COVID-19 U.S. landscape?” Using a feminist eye, this brings to media ecology a contextualization (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ellen W. Gorsevski Ph.D (Advisor); Kristina N. LaVenia Ph.D (Other); Lara M. Lengel Ph.D (Committee Member); Terry L. Rentner Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; American History; American Studies; Bioinformatics; Black Studies; Communication; Economic History; Education; Ethnic Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Health Education; Higher Education; Individual and Family Studies; Information Systems; Information Technology; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Medical Ethics; Middle School Education; Modern History; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Public Health; Public Health Education; Rhetoric; Science Education; Secondary Education; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Systematic; Systems Design; Technical Communication; Technology; Web Studies; Womens Studies

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science

Social media platforms dominate the technological world. Because of this, it has become increasingly important that these platforms are not only trustworthy, but secure. One of the most recent social media platforms to surface is TikTok, which has grown in popularity at a record pace, making it one of the most used social media applications in 2020. Despite TikTok's popularity, it has received scrutiny from American lawmakers potentially posing threats to national security. These threats have prompted the United States government to consider banning TikTok. Other nations, such as India, have already implemented national bans for similar reasons. The national security concerns surrounding TikTok originate from the parent company's national ties to China, questionable third party relations to the parent company and questions surrounding the data collected by the application itself. Recently, many have come forward with their findings from reverse engineering the application to expose its actual functionality. These findings highlight the security concerns within the application, focusing on application permissions, the insecure cryptography mechanisms, and additional issues that pose threats to users' personal data. This paper outlines the process of reverse engineering, thereby detailing the security concerns surrounding TikTok, as well as provide a proof of concept (POC) application capable of demonstrating the potential security risks. Accomplished using entirely open-source tools, this project aims to spread awareness about the importance of information security on mobile devices.

Committee: John Franco Ph.D. (Committee Chair); John Emmert Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rashmi Jha Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science