Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples and Politics

L01 - Roundtable on researching race and gender on TikTok, Instagram, and the use of other Advanced Digital Technologies (ADTs): Reflecting on methods and methodologies, research ethics, and the way forward

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Tari Ajadi (McGill University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Tari Ajadi (McGill University)

This roundtable examines how researchers have started to explore the different types of racial and gender subtexts on Tik Tok, Instagram and in ADTs. Given that conventional political science methods, such as discourse and content analysis, do not easily align with new modes of communication found in these sites - understanding how to trace racial and gendered subtexts that is expressed through these sites is a complex undertaking. Particularly where visual and musical cues, facial expressions, photos and video sketches are arguably more important than written text, how might our methods change to address these increasingly popular modes of communication? In this roundtable, participants share their research on immigration discourses on TikTok, Instagram and other prominent social media platforms, and explore what the implications may be both online and offline. Questions that roundtable participants will consider include the following: How do political and social scientists conduct research that traces racial and gendered subtexts found on TikTok, Instagram and other social media spaces? How might we begin thinking of new methods and methodologies to capture the ideologies that underpin digital content? What are the limitations of these new methodologies and conducting intersectional analyses of online discourses? How can researchers determine whether and how the use of AI and ADTs contribute to the spread of certain viewpoints through, for example, ‘fake’ social media accounts and Bots? Are there digital tools that enable us to systematically examine these sites? What are the limitations of these tools? And, finally, what are the ethical considerations that researchers must consider when conducting this work?