TikTok is an everyday space and therefore a sphere of activity for many young people. What messages and values are conveyed there? How do algorithms work, for example, in the recommendation function? What interests do social media monopolists like TikTok have in keeping users on their platforms and collecting their data? Understanding AI in social media is fundamental for civic participation in the digital society.
Communicating the complexity of artificial intelligence and providing guidance for one's own actions requires new approaches. This will be explored in a collaborative seminar with... medialepfade.org, Association for Media Education e.V., experienced students of the Friedensburg School This includes playful, exploratory, discursive and media-practical methods that are to be passed on as best practice.
Memes are the dominant form of communication, especially on TikTok—but also on other social media platforms—for influencers from all fields and users of all ages. What role do values and their communication play in this? Where are the hidden messages lurking alongside or within all the fun memes? What values could be conveyed through creating one's own memes? In the "TikTok Lab" and the "Meme Agency," participants explored these questions practically by analyzing and reflecting on memes and their mechanisms, and by developing their own memes.
In the TikTok Lab: How TikTok works, e.g., recommendation algorithms, what are memes, feed analysis and rating criteria, how data processing works by TikTok (exercise "How does the AI kick?")
In the Meme AGENCY Part IMeme culture on TikTok, values auction: which values are important to us, introduction to meme production on two to three self-selected values, start of film and photo documentation of the seminar
In the Meme AGENCY Part IIInput on personality rights, the right to one's own image, copyrights, and special features of TikTok copyright.
At the Meme Carousel: Processing of memes from the previous day related to one's own values with discussion/reflection during each handover to the next small group, reflection on meme and value culture on TikTok.
Presentation: Meme show and documentary film about the seminarr
The resulting memes, along with the knowledge and insights gained, were presented to guests at stations at the end of the seminar.
During the seminar, a film group produced a documentary about the learning process. This was also shown and can be viewed here.
The cooperation of medialepfade.org The methods tested and implemented at wannseeFORUM will be documented and disseminated. They will, for example, be incorporated into further seminars that focus on engaging with social media and AI as prerequisites for digital civic participation.
The seminar was supported by the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.
It took place as part of the collaboration in the program „Civic youth education in the AdB“ in the project group „Social Question and Civic Participation“ instead, funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
The wannseeFORUM Foundation is a recognized sponsor of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.