The Construction of 'TikTok' User in Media Discourse

The study examines how the TikTok platform attempts to construct its user, as well as how TikTok users are represented in Russian media discourse. TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world today, and analysis of the representations of its users in the media discourse can show the general attitude towards bloggers and content consumers on TikTok. Media discourse about TikTok often overlaps with media discourse about buzzers, so this study also gives the idea of the study of representatives of Gen Z. The purpose of the study is to identify what types of TikTok users are constructed in Russian-language media discourse. TikTok has not yet been well studied by media theorists, but studies of social media platforms have been used as basic theoretical works, because in some cases there are parallels between the features of different platforms. The work uses the methods of qualitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. As a result, the main myths with which Tiktokers associate were identified and conclusions were drawn about the representation of TikTok's audience as variegated and contradictory.