[Air-L] New article -- How to Spark Joy: Strategies of Depoliticization in Platform’s Corporate Social Initiatives

[Rebecca Scharlach]

Dear AoIR community,

I just wanted to share my first solo article with you. In this (open access) paper, published in Social Media + Society, I explore how platforms engage in corporate public relations campaigns – soft forms of governance – to negotiate social and political responsibilities. It’s called

How to Spark Joy: Strategies of Depoliticization in Platform’s Corporate Social Initiatives. Social Media + Society, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241277601
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051241277601
How to Spark Joy: Strategies of Depoliticization in Platform’s Corporate Social Initiatives - Rebecca Scharlach, 2024
journals.sagepub.com

A little summary:
Social media companies emphasize aspirations to do good yet have received significant and sustained international scrutiny for bad conduct. In response to these allegations, corporations have professed their commitment to ethical standards, declared their dedication to sound governance, and taken steps toward legal and social responsibilities.

Although corporate PR campaigns may not show up on the top of users’ FYP, they provide an important tool for platforms to mediate their relationships with different stakeholders, as well as a rich site for researchers to identify the values platforms actively promote.

In this article, I explore how the corporation behind TikTok, ByteDance, utilizes symbolic forms of power associated with values to navigate tensions associated with political and societal responsibilities. I bring together two bodies of literature: corporate social responsibility and platforms’ public communication strategies. I also introduce the concept of depoliticization by platforms, defined as strategies to downplay and distance a company from conflicts associated with struggles over power.

Through a qualitative analysis of the values promoted in the social initiative TikTok for Good, I show how ByteDance promotes messages that amplify positivity, minimize negativity, and focus on individual well-being, while consistently assigning responsibility to other actors.

Together, these strategies allow TikTok to symbolically empower users while maintaining control. This study highlights platform companies’ soft forms of governance and demonstrates how the analysis of platform values allows researchers to cut through the strategic vagueness of claims to do good.

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I hope the paper sparks interest for some of you, and I’d be very happy to hear your thoughts, questions, concerns, or ideas.

Wishing all of you a lovely weekend,
Rebecca 

-- 
Kind regards, 
Rebecca Scharlach (she/her)
 
Doctoral Researcher | ERC Project ‘DigitalValues <https://digitalvalues.huji.ac.il/>’
PhD Candidate
Department of Communication and Journalism 
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
@rscarlets
@rscarlets at aoir.social <mailto:rscarlets at aoir.social>
https://www.rebeccascharlach.com/