Algorithmic Personalization on Tiktok Reflection
For this project I got to work with Emily Barton to create a video surrounding the idea of algorithmic personalization on Tiktok. Emily and I worked extremely well together and took on a task that was very much out of both of our comfort zones. In terms of collaboration, she and I both pulled our weight in the creative process and in building our video. We did an excellent job of working together and when one of us was confused or had no idea what to do, the other was able to step in and take the lead. We met multiple times to sit face to face and understand what our goals were and how we wanted the end product to look. We allowed each other to express our ideas and visions and we found a way to connect the two together to create a fantastic project. Emily was very kind and funny and we laughed a lot when we were together. We joked around about how hard the video editing process was and we made the collaboration fun and exciting. WE had many highlights when working together and the only low lights I could say would be the frustration of working with platforms that were unfamiliar to us. All in all, Emily and I made a great team and I would absolutely want to work with her again in the future.
When it came to overall learning, I personally felt like I gained a ton of knowledge about an app that I use every single day. The information we collected honestly gave me some peace of mind about using the app so much. In the beginning of Tiktok, people thought our information was being stolen and it made me very uneasy. Now, I truly feel much more literate about the subject and feel comfortable explaining the truth about media algorithms to anyone who is interested. I learned a lot about what makes apps like Tiktok so successful and how beneficial it is for them to personalize each person’s account to their interest. While all social media platforms use this strategy, Tiktok has found a way to make it even more addicting than most others, for me at least.
The creative media production experience was…well an experience to say the least. Neither Emily nor I have had much experience with video editing or production. So, this project was a challenge for sure. We looked around at many different platforms where we could put together our content and ended up using an app called Splice. We found the best way for us to be productive was I would do the editing and Emily would work on content recording. The majority of our videos were screen recorded and then chopped together by me in the app. This was definitely a highlight for the two of us in our collaboration work. I had used the app before but not for a project as long and detailed as this. I was able to learn how to cut and input different videos, input and extract recordings and overlay everything to work cohesively together. I learned an amazing amount through this process. When we didn’t have enough content or we needed something more creative, Emily stepped in to find something better and more visually appealing. We put everything together and edited…edited…and edited some more. After all of that hard work and collaboration, I am very proud of what we accomplished together and I feel as though I am coming out the other side with a lot of new knowledge in very important areas of media. This being both further media literacy and also above average video editing skills!
