News for (Me and) You: Exploring the Reporting Practices of Citizen Journalists on TikTok

Recent developments in AI promise to further enact the shift from personalization to personification in automated digital interfaces. We have already seen the rise of virtual influencers and, more recently, of chatbots that adopt the personas of celebrities. Drawing on the intertwined history of the relationship between parasociality and personal influence, we frame the shift toward personification as a strategy for re-centralizing control over the online media environment. The shift is likely to extend beyond the realm of social media influencers to characterize our interactions with a range of services, platforms, and media content, from search engines to online news and entertainment. Automated personification anticipates a world permeated by enhanced parasocial relations with media devices and interfaces. To the extent that the interactive infrastructures shaping these relations remain controlled by commercial tech platforms, we can anticipate their imperatives will be baked into this version of automated sociality.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

News for (Me and) You: Exploring the Reporting Practices of Citizen Journalists on TikTok

Cited by 5 publications

References 55 publications

News consumption and political participation of young people in new media – a narrative literature review

News consumption and political participation of young people in new media – a narrative literature review

Introduction: Understanding Social Media Journalism

Automated Parasociality: From Personalization to Personification

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About