Watching TikTok Live Streaming: A Data Collection for Public Life Study in Hutong

Abstract

The block policy caused by COVID-19 has made public life researchers cannot conduct their studies. However, in recent years, fewer public life studies have proposed new tools to reduce human job involved in data collection process. Hence, this article has proposed a new way to collect public life studies data: watching TikTok live streaming. This research aims to test the reliability of this new data collection method by comparing the contents of Hutong residents' public lives from field research and TikTok live streaming. The researcher conducted an ethnographic investigation in Hutong. In the field research process, the researcher used observation to collect data and recorded it by taking photos and taking notes. While watching TikTok, the researcher selected four anchors who often conduct live streaming in Hutongs to watch and recorded the data by taking screenshots. Data from two different collection methods was analyzed by thematic analysis separately. Results show that the data obtained by watching TikTok live streaming is more comprehensive than that obtained by field research; besides, using TikTok to collect data can sufficiently reduce the input of human jobs. The researcher thought the social function of TikTok may provide more help for data collection. Hence this study advised future research to test the reliability of conducting interviews using TikTok.