Affordances of Power: TikTok as a Materialisation of the Chinese Soft Power

• In Event: Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in a Fragmenting World Order

Abstract

Due to its rapid dissemination and origin (Wagner, 2023), TikTok has become a peculiar phenomenon in a media landscape that remains heavily influenced by the West, in terms of political, sociological, and cultural characteristics.
Certainly, it cannot be denied that nearly all online platforms are situated within the U.S. context, consequently shaping environments characterised by strongly localised perspectives and cultures that are ideologically generated (Papacharissi et al., 2013). In contrast, TikTok, conceived and developed within the Chinese context, has successfully attained worldwide popularity by specifically capitalising on its Chinese traits (Wagner, 2023). That means, it has achieved its success by aligning and spreading itself with the cultural, political, and ideological Chinese characteristics.
If, indeed, technological applications are to be considered means of cultural understanding (Papacharissi, 2010; ), it is not surprising that they have soon been interpreted in terms of power, encompassing both distribution and implementation (Brey, 2008), and consequently, in terms of soft power (Gillespie, 2016). Over the last decade, scholars have engaged in thorough discussions regarding the role of online platforms as tools of state influence, particularly examining the alignment of identity and values between these platforms and their respective countries of origin (Hayden, 2016).
In this regard, Bjola and Holmes (2015) suggested evaluating the technological turn of soft power. Indeed, starting from the evidence of technology's effects on theories of power (Castells, 2007), for these scholars, reflecting on the impact of the network and its fragmentations meant rethinking the meaning and form of state power and its characteristics of influence. In other words, it meant reflecting on the imaginative role of immaterial power, adhering to an idea of soft power to be interpreted in a performative key (Guzzini, 2011; Nisbett, 2016).
Certainly, this turned out to be especially beneficial, particularly considering the transformations advocated by the platform society. This encompasses geopolitical infrastructures, cultural identities, and institutional resources alike (van Dijck et al., 2018). If social networking services have genuinely ushered in novel forms of connection, it became necessary to integrate soft power within these platforms to understand the manner in which these relationships are established, encompassing both environmental and values aspects.
Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between TikTok and Chinese cultural soft power, specifically examining whether and how TikTok incorporates, disseminates, and globalises Chinese characteristics. The goal is to delve into the alignment between the affordances of the platform and the cultural and social peculiarities of China; or rather, the relationship between the political dimension and the communicative dimension, through the triangulation of values, medium, and affordances.
Considering the Bytedance's intention to refocus its technological development on guiding principles of socialism (Xu & Flew, 2022), the work aims to investigate the relationship between these principles and the affordances of TikTok - as outlined by Zhao and Wagner's work (2022) - focusing on three areas: the space-time decontextualization of the experience, the perception of control and algorithmic accuracy, and the glocalization of virality.
To do so, we have questioned what kind of political, cultural, and ideological references related to Chinese soft power TikTok embodies, encodes, and disseminates abroad, and how these characteristics alter the ways of understanding and interpreting Chinese soft power or, more broadly, the features of modern state power. By conducting an in-depth examination of literature pertaining to the sociocultural context of Chinese values, we have embraced a platform ethnography methodology (Bucher & Helmond, 2018; Risi & Pronzato, 2022). This approach aims to enhance our ability to observe the correlation between these values and the distinctive features of the platform. Examining the complexities of TikTok, hence, offers a fresh opportunity to comprehend the evolution and consolidation of state power in the societies of platforms.

Authors

• Giovanni Boccia Artieri, University of Urbino Carlo Bo

• valeria of urbino carlo Donato, University of Urbino Carlo Bo