Rethinking Creative Labor: A Sociotechnical Examination of Creativity & Creative Work on TikTok

Title of the Paper

Rethinking Creative Labor: A Socio-technical Examination of Creativity and Creative Work on TikTok

Bibliographic Information

• Field of Study: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Social Media, Creativity, and Creative Labor
• Keywords: Creative labor, Infrastructure, TikTok, Content creation, Creativity, Socio-technical, Platform logic, Visibility labor, Motivations for creation

Research Background and Problems

• Identified Issues/Challenges:

  • There is a conflict between the creative intentions of small-scale creators and platform logic, particularly in the dimensions of professionalization, socialization, and creative expression.
  • The infrastructure of social media platforms (e.g., TikTok) introduces a series of disruptions that interfere with users' creative routines and may even alienate users from their creative work.
  • Platform visibility metrics (e.g., likes, views, shares) often fail to support the non-commercial goals of small-scale creators and may lead to creator burnout.

• Research Importance:

  • Current research predominantly focuses on the professionalized labor and monetization activities of content creators, with limited attention to non-mainstream, non-professional creators.
  • Creators on digital platforms contribute to the production of socio-cultural products; analyzing their creative intentions helps to understand user-platform relationships and enrich existing studies on social media and creative labor.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • The authors extend theories on "visibility labor" and "relational labor" in digital creation, emphasizing the overlooked interaction between creators and their creative work.
  • The literature review covers topics on cultural production, infrastructure and routines, and creative activities on the TikTok platform.

Solutions

• Methodology:

  • Conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 TikTok creators, employing qualitative analysis with inductive and open coding to explore how platform infrastructure shapes and influences their creative behaviors and intentions.
  • Engaged a diverse group of creators to obtain broad perspectives and minimize sampling bias.

• Innovations:

  • Proposed an expanded definition of "creative labor," focusing on the relationship between creators and their creative works rather than solely on monetization or visibility labor.
  • Specifically examined how digital platforms conceptualize and influence creative work through infrastructure logic and user interactions.

• Implementation Steps:

  • Interviewed creators to understand their creative history, motivations, platform usage experiences, and related challenges.
  • Analyzed participants' routines in preparing, producing, and presenting creative works, exploring how platform design leads to disruptions.

Research Findings

• Core Discoveries:

  • Three Categories of Creative Intentions:

    1. Professionalization: TikTok's viral mechanisms encourage creators to pursue more professionalized performances, but this also brings repetitive creative pressure and creative exhaustion.
    2. Socialization: Creators aim to engage with communities through their works, but audience construction and harassment issues caused by platform algorithms disconnect them from expected social outcomes.
    3. Creative Expression: TikTok provides a space for creativity, but its editing tools and content moderation mechanisms impose limitations on creative expression.

  • Infrastructure Challenges:

    • The visibility standards of platform logic (e.g., popularity) conflict with creators' diverse creative intentions.
    • Technical and managerial infrastructure (e.g., content moderation, recommendation algorithms) may lead to creators feeling alienated.

  • Forms of Alienation:

    • Alienation between creators and audiences: TikTok's algorithmic audience construction disrupts natural interactions between creators and viewers.
    • Alienation between creators and self: Algorithms force creators into narrow thematic domains, restricting creative expression.
    • Alienation between creators and artistic works: The platform's production pace causes creators to lose a sense of control over their works.

• Comparison with Existing Solutions:

  • Current theories largely focus on large-scale creators, neglecting the unique challenges faced by small-scale creators.
  • This study expands the frameworks of "visibility labor" and "relational labor," emphasizing the micro-structural impacts of creator-platform interactions.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • The data source is relatively singular, with a small sample size.
    • Did not delve into larger-scale creators with millions of followers.
  • Suggestions for Future Work:
    • Conduct cross-platform studies on creative routines to reveal the support and constraints of different platforms.
    • Explore a broader range of creator groups, particularly those with lower levels of professionalization or diverse identity backgrounds.