The viral turn: rethinking virality in the creator economy on TikTok

Abstract

This paper (re)conceptualizes the ecology of virality, which has now become central to TikTok-driven short-form video cultures. By mapping out this virality ecology of TikTok, we provide an up-to-date explanation of how the attention economy in social media pop cultures is reconfigured through algorithmic logics centring on virality. As widely discussed in media studies, the concept of virality is by no means novel, yet it has evolved alongside technological development. We focus on the continuities and discontinuities of this historically discussed concept, particularly as they have emerged with the rise of TikTok. Drawing on the most relevant examples from our multi-year observation on TikTok, we illustrate the current landscape of cultural production and its broader implications and offer a theoretical account of the creator economy shaped and amplified in a regime of virality.