THURS-115 - Viral Voices: TikTok as a Hub for Sexual Violence Awareness and Healing
Thursday, April 17, 2025
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PST
Location: Pacific I/II, 2nd Floor
Area of Responsibility: Area V: Advocacy@@@Area VI: Communication Subcompetencies: 5.3.1 Use media to conduct advocacy (e.g., social media, press releases, public service announcements, and op-eds).
6.4.2 Select communication channels and current and emerging technologies that are most appropriate for the audience(s) and message(s).
6.5.4 Use current and emerging communication tools and trends (e.g., social media)., 6.5.4 Use current and emerging communication tools and trends (e.g., social media).
Student University of Arkansas Springdale, Arkansas, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Evaluate the effectiveness of TikTok as a platform for sharing coping mechanisms and raising awareness about issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Explore the influence of social media platforms, particularly TikTok, in shaping discourse and community-building around issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Explore how TikTok’s global reach impacts cross-cultural discourse on sexual harassment and assault.
Brief Abstract Summary: Discover how TikTok is reshaping conversations around sexual harassment and sexual assault by enabling users to share coping strategies and raise awareness. This study analyzed 643 videos with #sexualharassmentawareness and #sexualassaultawareness in their captions, focusing on the 100 most viewed. Through qualitative content analysis, common themes emerged, including emotional expression, self-compassion, public education, and challenging rape culture. TikTok's accessible, relatable, bite-sized, content makes it a powerful platform for promoting sexual violence awareness and fostering supportive online communities. Learn how social media can play a critical role in sexual violence education and survivor empowerment.
Detailed abstract description: Background
Since the popularization of the #MeToo movement, social media sites are increasingly used for disclosing, sharing, and responding to incidences of sexual violence (SV). TikTok is a popular social media app for creating, sharing, and disseminating health education and awareness on SV. This study aimed to explore the nature of coping and awareness related to SV using qualitative content analysis.
Methods
Apify TikTok Scraper was used to collect the metadata that used the hashtags #sexualharrassmentawareness and #sexualassaultawareness. TikTok videos were included if they used the hashtags, were in the English language, were available for public viewing, and involved any coping or awareness techniques regarding SV. A total of 1,042 videos were scraped and 643 videos met our inclusion criteria. The top 100 most viewed videos out of this sample were analyzed for qualitative content analysis. Using a grounded theory approach, two independent coders analyzed the videos to explore themes related to awareness techniques and coping strategies posted by TikTok users.
Results
The most common themes explored in the videos were users expressing their coping mechanisms after SV episodes, practicing self-compassion and forgiveness, educating the general public regarding SV and its dynamics, prevalence, and consequences, and challenging rape culture that normalizes or trivializes SV. TikTok users used pictorial slideshows, news clips, storytelling, and acting/performance to share their coping and awareness strategies.
Conclusion
The ability to share bite-sized information with personal narratives and trending audio/visual features makes TikTok a dynamic platform for raising awareness on SV, encouraging online communication, and building diverse support communities to empower survivors.
