With the rapid development of digital technology, online network has gradually become an important force to promote social change. In China, a country with a huge Internet user base and highly digital development, social media is not only a tool for entertainment, but also an important space for people to express their opinions and spread culture. As the most influential short video platform in China, Douyin plays a unique role in contemporary Chinese society. Through his algorithmic recommendation mechanism and low-threshold creation environment, he has aroused the enthusiasm of many ordinary users, especially young groups. Promoting the expansion of grassroots expression and cultural innovation. In the process, however, Douyin has also demonstrated the complex interaction between digital platforms and national governance. While promoting content diversification, the platform also strengthens the spread of state-led ideology through censorship and public opinion guidance. Therefore, this paper argues that Douyin plays a dual role in China’s social change, that is, as a catalyst to promote social expression and cultural change, but also to maintain the existing power structure to some extent, reflecting the reality of the coexistence of possibilities and limitations of social change in China’s digital media environment.
As a mass oriented short video platform with a low threshold, Douyin provides ordinary users, especially young groups, with an expression channel that has never existed before. On Douyin, users can show their own views and attitudes by filming their daily lives, creating short plays and Posting comments. In this low-cost, high-communication environment, a large number of grassroots writers have gained considerable attention, so as to break the discourse structure monopolized by mainstream media in the past. (Zeng & Abidin, 2021) The emergence of many “rural vloggers” in recent years is a good example. These bloggers quickly attract the interest of a large number of urban users by showcasing rural life, local cuisine and traditional crafts. To a certain extent, it makes up for the impression of urban users on rural life. At the same time, it also reshaped the imagination of the countryside to a certain extent. The popularity of this kind of content is both a cultural backward compatibility and a rebuilding of identity in the age of social networks. (Zhao, 2023) In addition, the interactivity and immediacy of the Douyin platform enable the rapid spread of social hot spots. Users participate in public discussions through likes, comments, retweets, etc. (Sun, 2022) For example, in the themes of “anti-internal volume” and “migrant workers”, a large number of young users express their ridicule and dissatisfaction with the pressure in reality by creating relevant content. Although these voices often present playful or humorous expectations, this manifestation is a real social anxiety and dilemma. (Zhang & Negro, 2021) In this sense, Douyin is not only an entertainment platform, but also a platform that can carry social emotions and promote expression, which has a non-negligible impact on social ideology.
In addition to promoting the expression of people without backgrounds, Douyin has also played a large role in the generation and dissemination of youth culture. Through the creation and sharing of short videos, young users not only show each other’s different styles and interests, but also make some of them constitute an identity. Whether it is the revival of Hanfu in recent years, secondary culture, hip-hop, fitness and other lifestyle content, Douyin Douyin has become an important platform to promote the development of youth culture. These cultures are more than just entertainment, they are a social expression. These contents reflect the emotional space and self-discourse power constructed by the young generation in the face of realistic pressure. It is worth noting that Douyin will accurately push relevant internal messages based on different preferences and interests of customers. It further strengthens the formation of interest community. Although these societies vary in size, they are highly cohesive and interactive. Through likes, comments and imitation challenges, emotional links are established between users to form a niche with a common cultural identity. For example, some young people get a lot of sympathy and support by sharing their gender identity, career choices or relationship experiences. This is difficult to achieve in a traditional media environment. Douyin is both a content distribution platform and a cultural meeting place, giving more visibility to fringe topics. (Jin, 2020) However, this machine-algorithm-led cultural transmission is not without negative impressions. A platform’s preference for the most-viewed attention content may lead creators to cater to a particular style or topic in order to gain traffic. As a result, traffic standardization occurs. Within a seemingly pluralistic inner tone, partial independent or critical cultural expression remains at risk of marginalization. In addition, the platform’s guidance of positive content also affects the choice of subject matter and the way of expression of young people’s creation. This kind of data-driven cultural engagement, despite its wide coverage and spreading power, also reflects the still hidden complex relationship between platforms and social norms. Douyin, then, is not just a social tool, but a medium that can be embedded in culture, slowly shaping the boundaries of expression while providing opportunities for free expression.
Although Douyin provides a relatively open space for cultural expression and social interaction, Douyin has always been under strict regulation in China. As a platform that receives national policy guidance, Douyin must obey China’s social system of political security and public opinion orientation in terms of content recommendation and review. The platform will block sensitive terms, downgrade specific topics and block accounts that violate the platform’s rules. This constitutes a filter structure for social expression. Users have to think about the formality of speech in order to avoid running into some political red lines. This limitation not only affects the diversity of information, but also reshapes the boundaries of public perception of what constitutes reasonable speech (Repnikova, 2020). In this environment, although Douyin presents a diverse and active content landscape on the surface, the technical policy logic behind it has shaped the distribution of discourse rights. For example, some critical social topics involving feminism, labor rights, environmental protests, etc., are often quickly deleted or suppressed. This makes creators have to find a delicate balance between entertaining and expressive. Sometimes creators use metaphors and other means to circumvent the platform’s monitoring. This phenomenon shows that the platform can not be completely free of expression, but under the dual role of national ideology and platform business logic of the governing media space. (Fang & Repnikova, 2018) In addition, Douyin’s own algorithmic logical structure is also invisibly involved in this process of technical governance. The platform prioritizes videos that align with mainstream values and spread positive content. At the same time, the platform will marginalize some so-called unstable topics. This is not only in line with the state ideology, but also to cater to advertisers and the mainstream market. Under such a mechanism, the space for expression is expanded, but it will not be completely equal. Some creators who have strong content production capabilities and are familiar with the logic of platform operation are more likely to get exposure, while marginal creators or critical content will be submerged in a lot of entertainment information. This stratification of power also makes the social discussion on Douyin have hidden control mechanisms under the seemingly open surface. Therefore, the social expression brought by Douyin has a certain progressive nature, but it is also restricted by the system and environment. On the one hand, it stimulates the expression desire and creativity of ordinary people, and also creates a limited, open, controllable and inclusive region under the control of the state and commercial interests. This complex pattern of freedom and restriction is an important part of understanding social change in China’s digital media environment.
Douyin’s role in China’s digital society is not single, but has diversified and complex characteristics. On the one hand, it does provide an expression platform for ordinary users, especially the young generation, to break through the traditional discourse system, so that those voices without economic background can be heard by people to a certain extent. In addition, it is also constantly adjusting the possibility of such expression in the interweaving of national ideology and platform interests. This duality determines that Douyin is not a radical agent of social change, but rather a space that gradually operates in order to release expression. (Yang, 2022) This limited release mechanism makes Douyin promote a kind of spiritual social change, which will subtly affect users. Subsequently, more changes in individual consciousness, cultural identity and public sentiment are reflected, which is not a direct challenge to the system. This kind of reform has a certain degree of concealment and dispersion. For example, in the process of constantly blurring the boundary between entertainment and expression, users gradually form new ways of perceiving social issues; Some creators construct public discourse by means of metaphors and other expression techniques that can avoid monitoring, which will also invisibly expand the types and boundaries of expressible themes. The social impact of Douyin is not only reflected in its own content, but also in the continuous interaction between users and the platform. The censorship mechanisms established by the platform on the one hand, on the other hand, have to be adjusted according to the behavior of customers and the content of the dissemination. This model of platform management of user negotiation makes the platform internal communication show the characteristics of compliance internal negotiation. Some of the creators have developed some techniques that can flexibly correspond to the creative logic of the platform, and wrap the core content through funny, ironic and other means, so as to bypass the censorship mechanism and spread. In the constant game between creators and platforms, although the platform has absolute power, users are not completely passive. These behaviors and social phenomena will gradually shake the absolute status of mainstream ideology on the Internet. Therefore, the social change caused by Douyin will not be radical and conflict with the mainstream social consciousness, but will slowly shake the mainstream ideology in a complex mode of negotiation. In short, freedom is opposed to control.
As one of the most influential online platforms in China, Douyin has played a unique role in social change. On the one hand, it promotes the creation of people without background and economic strength and the spread of youth culture by lowering the threshold of expression. It stimulates the enthusiasm of individual expression and promotes public participation in cultural innovation. In addition, under the dual constraints of the rules of national ideology and the commercial logic of the platform, it regularly screens the content it contains, so that the expression activities are always within the controllable boundary. Under this system of freedom and control, Douyin forms a non-confrontational path to social change. By analyzing user participation, cultural expression, platform governance and censorship mechanisms, this paper points out that Douyin is not a simple communication tool, but a cultural system full of negotiation and game. Not only does it reflect the complexity of the structure of contemporary digital public Spaces in China, ye shows how digital platforms can create possibilities within limitations. Douyin is difficult to shake the existing rule system in the short term, but through long-term accumulation, with the awakening of youth consciousness, it may constitute a deep social impact in the future. To sum up, Douyin’s role in online networks and social change must be understood from an instrumental perspective and comprehensively examined from its media, cultural and political elements.
Reference list
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Hi Shannon Kate, You’re right to ask; it is incredibly difficult to police these issues today. Predatory behaviour isn’t exclusive…