TikTok, A new platform for Technical and Professional

Communication

Brianna Monroe
ENGL 7702: Research Methods in Empirical Inquiry
Dr. Erin Frost
April 25, 2022
 Abstract

To explore new platforms of technical and professional communication, this

article argues that TikTok effectively utilizes diversity and narrative storytelling,
classifying it as an effective form of technical and professional communication.
Technical and professional communication has recently taken on the goal of
becoming more diverse in the content being produced, the audience reached, and
the subject matter. With TikTok’s large audience, the app theoretically has the
potential to accomplish this goal. Through the use of a case study, a survey, and
analyzing of previous texts, this article is aiming to determine if TikTok is an effective
platform for technical and professional communication.

Introduction

Technical and professional communication is the craft of communicating

information on a specified subject to a mass amount of people, in a way that it can
be appropriately received. In recent years the technical and professional
communication field has strived to become a more diverse field and to reach a larger
and diverse audience. Del Hierro speaks to this in his article “DJs, Playlists, and
Community: Imagining Communication Design through Hip Hop” as he studies hip
hop as a form of diverse technical and professional communication. Del Hierro
mentions how hip hop has been absent from the discussion of social justice in the
technical and professional communication community. Through my research, I aim
to study the app, TikTok and determine if it is an effective form of technical and
professional communication that can help achieve the call for diversity in the
technical professional communication realm.

Furthermore, Small believes that this can be done through story-based

research, “The importance and compelling need for story-based research as a
means of approaching complicated issues such as power, gender, and race persist
today. Contemporary scholars continue to identify ways that TPC professionals must
act as ethically minded conceptual thinkers and critical information managers” By
becoming aware of the narratives of underrepresented communities, technical and
professional communicators can create work that is more ethical and socially just.
What’s unique about TikTok is that it provides users their own space to do their
storytelling. TikTok also gives users the chance to correct others, and answer
questions to help ensure that all the information that users find is culturally sensitive
and accurate. TikTok allows all of its users to use their voice, while also proving to
be an educational resource. TikTok can achieve the goal of social justice on a large
scale.
 TikTok was originally two different apps. In 2014 the app Musical.ly was
created in Shanghai however, it had a large audience in the United States and
quickly started to grow in popularity. In 2016 the app Douyin was launched in China,
by the creators Bytedance. Douyin had gained a great deal of popularity in China
and Thailand. Bytedance saw the potential that Doyuin and Musical.ly presented. In
2018 Bytedance acquired Musical.ly and combined the two apps, thus creating
TikTok. Since the merge of these two apps, TikTok has grown to the point where it
now has about 2 billion users.

With such a large audience TikTok presents a unique opportunity for technical
and professional communicators to reach a much larger audience than ever before.
While TikTok does have the ability to reach a large audience, several complications
are present. Because TikTok is a social media platform, its algorithm and creator
popularity determine what content is viewed by users. Due to this selectiveness, it
comes into question whether or not TikTok would be an effective form of technical
and professional communication. To study this I have broken down two core ideas of
what makes an effective technical and professional communication platform those
being; the ability to assimilate information and diversity.

Methods

To thoroughly examine the effectiveness of TikTok as a form of technical and

professional communication, a mixed-method approach will be utilized. By
leveraging the use of qualitative and quantitative research, a credible conceptualized
understanding of TikTok as a professional communication platform will be
established.

A survey was conducted on 200 TikTok users to aid in determining the

effectiveness that TikTok has at assimilating information as well as its diversity.
Users will be asked if they feel they have learned new technical/historical information
through TikTok, if they feel they have found representation on TikTok, and if they’ve
become aware of different cultures and diverse groups on TikTok. From these
answers, It can be gathered as to whether or not users are being educated on
different topics that they would not typically encounter, as well as determine if
personal demographic groups have representation on the app and if the app does an
accurate job of displaying other diverse groups to the users. This is important
because TikTok has a very specific algorithm that people are still trying to
understand and work through as it’s constantly changing. However, for TikTok to be
considered an effective technical and professional communication platform it needs
to be able to reach diverse groups as well as educate diverse groups. By doing so,
technical and professional communicators would be able to implement social justice
through narrative and storytelling and accomplish the goal of creating a more diverse
realm of typical professional communication.

A case study has also been conducted, focusing on the Elmo balsamic
vinegar trend on TikTok. This was a recent phenomenon on TikTok that brought
awareness to how content can be interpreted by different demographic groups of
TikTok, in this case, it would be the “black” and “white” side of TikTok. From this
case study, the complications of Tiktok’s algorithm will be further examined. It is vital
in technical and professional communication, that the information being
communicated is accurately received by the target audience.

Furthermore, an examination of the previous research conducted on TikTok in

the technical and professional communication community will be examined. This will
provide ample background on the subject matter and will aid in creating a credible
base for this research.

Background

TikTok has proven to be an asset to social justice movements as well as a

platform that has needed to be reminded of social justice values. This is a similar
phenomenon that occurs in multiple facets of technical professional communication.
While technical professional communicators push to be more culturally aware,
there’s always a calling for social justice and diversity as the field is ever-evolving.
Part of this evolution is becoming aware of shortcomings, and overcoming them.

In 2019, India viewed TikTok as a “cultural deterioration in society that leads

to sexual perversity and distracts youth” (Subramanian). This was an idea primarily
targeted toward young women. There was moral concern about young women’s
practices on the app which diminished the use of TikTok by young girls in India. At
one point India even moved to ban Tik Tok in the country however this did not stand.

During this time Bahujan, girls in India started utilizing TikTok to promote the
anti-cast movement (Subramanian). The Bahujan girls were highlighting anti-cast
icons in their TikTok videos while lip-synching to popular Hindi and Bollywood music.
In their efforts to promote the anti-caste social justice movement, the Bahujan girls
also created their social justice movement by challenging the idea that young
women’s TikTok was perverse and inappropriate on the app. One of the hashtags in
the movement, #bhimkanya has gained over 86 million views. This shows how
effective of a tool TikTok can be in promoting awareness and creating social justice
movements, as this trend gained great popularity in India.

TikTok has been instrumental in some social justice movements however, it

has also presented its social justice issues. In July 2021, black content creators on
TickTock went on strike. The black content creators found that they were not being
properly credited for their content, and that white content creators were reaping the
benefits of utilizing their ideas without proper accreditation. In March 2021 Addison
Rae performed a viral dance on TikTok entitled the renegade, and was invited to the
Jimmy Fallon show to perform it. Addison did not create the renegade dance, it was
created by black 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon (McClay).

Black content creators started the hashtag #BlackTikTokStrike as a tool to

raise awareness about their strike and request for their content and narratives to be
properly credited. This hashtag currently has over 8 million views. This situation
demonstrates a greater issue on TikTok. One of the current goals of technical and
professional communications is to make sure that voices and narratives are not
being silenced. To ensure that the narratives from underrepresented communities
are being heard, they must be properly credited. Furthermore, while TikTok does
give underrepresented voices the platform to tell their narratives and display their
culture, it’s futile if the voices aren’t heard. However, this is more so attributed to the
content creators, than the app itself.

An interesting commonality between the Bahujan girls and the Black TikTok
content creator strike, both utilize TikTok as an instrumental way to promote their
social justice movements. While the Bahujan girls were using their hashtags to
promote anti-castism, black TikTok content creators were using the strike on TikTok
to raise awareness about their situation of not being credited. Black content creators'
use of the hashtag in the strike raised awareness on the app but also outside of the
app. The TikTok strike made national news by being featured on BBC’s website and
brought awareness to the fact that people of color’s voices have been overlooked
long before TikTok.

The fact that TikTok has the ability to both engineer a social justice movement
and raise awareness of the social justice movement through the use and disuse of
the application is monumental. TikTok single-handedly has been able to educate
users on and off the app. Reaching an even larger audience than before. 60% of
TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24 years old (Doyle), which means
that there are older generations that are not accounted for. When the social justice
movements on TikTok made news nationally and internationally, the audience
broadened and started to incorporate the older generations that watch and read the
news but are not active on social media. Proving TikTok’s ability to spread specific
information on a large scale.

CASE STUDY

In December 2021 the Elmo balsamic vinegar challenge became a trending

phenomenon on TikTok. This trend originated from the Jimmy Fallon show in 2015.
Elmo guest-starred on the show to promote the Sesame Street cookbook. Elmo
listed off a group of ingredients one of the ingredients was balsamic vinegar. In the
video, Elmo says “ we’re gonna add balsamic vinegar, that’s a big word for Elmo.”
TikTok users found this line to be comical and turned it into a sound on TikTok

This sound was interpreted differently by different groups of TikTok users.

Some users interpreted the way almost most balsamic vinegar as an ethnic New
York accent and others interpreted it as a sassy flirty pickup line. Since the start of
this trend in December 2021, over two hundred thousand videos have been made
using sound. In the comments of various TikTok videos, users can be seen
discussing it is recognizable whether or not creators are on the “black side” of
TikTok, referencing Elmo saying balsamic vinegar in an ethnic New York accent, or
the “white side” of TikTok where Elmo saying balsamic vinegar as a flirty pickup
line. . I found this particular trend to be interesting because it demonstrates how
TikTok can be used to spread information to different demographic groups on the
app at the same time. In this instance the “white” and “black” sides of TikTok.

This trend demonstrates one of the complications that come with utilizing
TikTok as a technical professional communication platform. By showing how this
trend was interpreted differently by two demographic groups on TikTok it
demonstrates how information can be interpreted differently. This presents a
problem because technically professional communicators aim to produce information
on a specific subject matter that can be understood and received by many. And while
consumers can develop their viewpoints of that information the subject matter and
message being communicated should be clear.

TikTok has an algorithm that is set up to cater to what it is set up to predict

what its users would enjoy seeing open scrolling on there for you page (Doyle). This
algorithm makes it easier to provide content to certain demographic groups based on
the contact that the users like and the mutual interest of their friends on TikTok. This
algorithm is an excellent tool to use when reaching out to different democratic
groups.
 From this case study, it can be understood that TikTok does have the ability to
reach multiple demographic groups accomplishing one of the current goals of
technical and professional communicators. However, it proves to be difficult to
accomplish these goals while also effectively communicating information because it
can be comprehended differently, as seen with Elmo’s balsamic vinegar trend.
Which does not work towards the purpose of technical and professional
communication.

Survey Data and Results

To further understand if users are receiving diverse information on Tik Tok a

survey was conducted on 200 TikTok users. This survey was distributed through
TikTok in the comment section of 20 different videos. Each video had over 6000
views. These videos were found in the discover section of TikTok, as a means to
target videos that are currently trending. These graphs and survey questions provide
an excellent basis for understanding how TikTok is diverse in representation,
education, and the ability to matriculate information. These questions do not allow
the survey participants to give reasoning behind their answers. However, leaving
open-ended questions can prove to be difficult when looking for statistical research.
These survey questions and graphs serve as a preliminary understanding of the
diversity of TikTok and its potential to be considered a platform for technical and
professional communication.
 From figure one, it is understood that 90% of the survey users feel they have
gained new knowledge on different topics and demographic groups. This provides
evidence to support TikTok’s effectiveness at producing diverse information for
users. This demonstrates the potential TikTok would have as a technical and
professional communication platform.
 From figure 2 we can see that a little over 62% of the survey TikTok users feel
that they have adequate representation on the app. This is vital as it proves that
TickTock is representing a diverse group of voices. This helps accomplish the goal of
incorporating different demographic, narratives, and perspectives in technical and
professional communication.
 Figure 3 demonstrates that over 70% of these survey TikTok users feel like
they have seen multiple demographic groups on the app. This further demonstrates
the effectiveness TikTok has at spreading narratives from different demographic
groups, while still also dealing with the TikTok algorithm to recommend content to
users that they are interested in.

These surveys are limited in the information they provide. 60% of TikTok’s
age range is 16 to 24 so it does not provide equal representation for all age groups.
Furthermore, TikTok can be shared on multiple different platforms such as
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. This would result in reaching a whole different
realm of demographic groups. In the future, these surveys should also include
people who do not have TikTok accounts to see if they are also receiving information
from TikTok. This information will prove to be beneficial because it would show the
greater audience that TikTok can reach outside of the 5 billion current users it has.

Conclusion

It has been determined that TikTok is very effective at reaching a large

audience and multiple demographic groups. TikTok has also proven to be
instrumental in aiding and creating social justice movements. This can be
determined by the traction that the #blacktiktokstrike and #bhimkanya. Each
hashtage has millions of views, which demonstrates the increased awareness that
each social justice movement has gained. It can also be understood from the
surveys, that TikTok does allow the opportunity for multiple narratives to be
introduced to users. Based solely on this information, TikTok can be considered to
be an effective form of professional communication.

However, this research is preliminary. Moving forward, active studies should

be conducted to understand how content can be created to reach desired
demographic groups through TikTok’s algorithm. Creating videos with different
content and learning how to effectively reach diverse demographic groups and large
audiences still need to be taken into consideration before TikTok can be officially
classified as a form of technical and professional communication.

TikTok is a new and ever-evolving application. While TikTok does need to be

studied more as a form of Technical and Professional Communication, it can still be
considered an effective tool to study and utilize when attempting to reach different
demographic groups as well as, understanding how to incorporate narratives of
different demographic groups. As this information will be able to matriculate over into
other forms of technical and professional communication.
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