TikTok as a site of social protest in Iran’s Gen-Z uprising

Bibliographic Data

ID12253149
AuthorsTom Walsh (0009-0007-9788-9094, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of Durham/Northumbria University, UK, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume35
Issue5
Pages625-650
Publication date2024-03-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09579265241234351
OpenAlexW4392919125
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited18

This paper argues that understanding the power of TikTok’s visual discourse is a crucial part of conceptualising the character, inspiration, and ambition of Iran’s Gen-Z-led uprising, both at home and across the diaspora. TikTok is a social media platform that depends on visuality. As such, it creates its own specific forms of messaging. This paper seeks to apply an innovative methodology of ‘Visual Discourse Tracing’ to the Iranian protests. It uses this carefully devised, process-driven method, to highlight the core ways in which TikTok has amplified the message of the Iranian protests, connecting to the grassroots movement and to the longer history of Iranian women’s struggle for freedom. Visuality and social media have been crucial in shaping the character of these contemporary protests, necessitating proper theorisation when understanding the wider Iranian protest movement

Character (mathematics · Diaspora · Grassroots · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social media · Social movement · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access