| dc.description.abstract | Content creators may seem to speak authentically on TikTok projecting relatable,
friendly, and entertaining selves; however, their ways of communication are likely to
have been carefully crafted. By describing how some TikTok content creators build
their online selves through their communication styles, this dissertation reflects upon
how identity is constructed in such a volatile and algorithm-driven platform. Thus, the
main hypothesis concerns the formation and curation of TikTok content creators‘ public
personae using the so-called TikTok voice: A particular form of communicating
characterised by the use of certain sociophonetic phenomena—creaky voice and
uptalk—paired with the technical, social, and creative affordances of TikTok. Upon
studying a sub-group of users, this dissertation stems from a qualitative research project
with a case study design which has analysed nine representative videos from three
different TikTok accounts following Erving Goffman‘s (1959) theory of the self. The
results show that the observed content creators creak frequently in phrase-final
positions, use uptalk recurrently as a floor-holding strategy, and curate their online
selves through their front stages, expressions given, and non-verbal cues, among other
tactics. These finding become relevant to revisit how identity is performed on TikTok
and to rethink how language varieties emerge or mutate. | es_ES |
