This study aims to investigate the increasingly prominent phenomenon of queerbaiting in Chinese social media, which is to bait and lure the queer audience in for an existing media text, through queer representations including erotica. With the development of streaming media and its innovative application in e-commerce especially during the COVID-19, social media platforms such as Douyin have become a rich site for economic and cultural analyses. This project is significant that since the Chinese government and platforms regulate queer content in a seemingly strict way, for example, those who express ‘abnormal’ sexual orientation will be banned. However, queerbaiting as a genre of media production still finds its way through short videos and gets away with tightened regulatory regimes. At the same time, Douyin’s huge monetization potential with e-commerce in various formats (e-gift-giving, sponsorship, advertorials) makes queerbaiting as a marketing strategy an indispensable part of Chinese social media that attracts scholarly and market attention. Furthermore, most queer content creators would self-present on the Douyin as straight especially when they engage with queerbaiting strategies, making both their media production sustainable in a tight regulatory regime and data accessible for my research. The study emphasizes a departure from fan-centred queerbaiting research and instead examines from the producer's perspective, dissecting the actions and goals of influencers to attract followers, monetize and profit by manipulating audience interpretations and queer imaginations as their strategies, at the same time, to navigate and protect themselves from homophobic regulatory and social environments.

New age spirituality is a pastiche of practices and beliefs ranging from divination, such as tarot card readings, to channelling and speaking to the dead through psychic mediums, to alternative healthcare such as Reiki or homeopathy. On TikTok, new age spiritualists have become content creators, making crystal reiki ASMR videos, quickly shuffling tarot cards on livestreams, and explaining their manifestation practices in vlogs. They have solidified themselves as part and parcel of the platform ecosystem with some videos garnering over 10 million views. Often new age content creators will begin their videos like this, ‘If you’re seeing this on your “for you page” someone has probably put a hex on you’ or 'I don’t care if you believe in tarot readings or not because the universe obviously sent you this video for a reason'. The implication being that the algorithmic decision making that led to this video appearing on the “for you page” (FYP) was not mathematical or coincidental, but magical. This presentation takes a journey through these new age spirituality videos that claim that their videos have arrived at a viewers’ feed through cosmic algorithmic intervention. First, I examine what Cotter et al. (2023) describe as “algorithmic conspirituality” in new age content creators' videos. And then explore how this is mobilised and monetised through garnering attention and promoting themselves, techniques central to the political economies of digital platforms. Ultimately, I reflect on how commercialisation, magic and algorithmic media converge on digital media platforms like TikTok.

Social media platforms are key actors within the influencer ecosystem, mediating and regulating how influencers can engage in monetisation practices. In this socio-legal paper, we examine one form of monetisation, influencer marketing, to understand how platform policies and interfaces shape commercial content for influencers. We situate our enquiry of regulation by platforms within the regulation of platforms. Namely, we focus on the legal obligations of disclosure of commercial content under European consumer law. Bringing together an analysis of platform documentation for Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, and insights generated through a walkthrough of each platform, we present preliminary findings. First, we address the terminology used by platforms to refer to influencers with a focus on how types of account types (mis)align with the qualification of influencers as traders. Second, we outline how platforms frame influencer marketing and establish rules for this form of monetisation. We critically reflect on how the narrow framing of commercial content obscures legal requirements and how platforms position legal obligations including disclosures. Our walkthrough of the platform-facilitated disclosure tools highlights differences in access and visibility with some platforms seeming to deprioritise the visibility of this at the level of the interface. Overall, we argue that enforcing disclosure practices among influencers must be contextualised within the dynamics of platform governance, where platforms hold power in shaping the monetisation landscape. In keeping with recent legislation on platform liability, platforms could play a more proactive role in shaping an environment conducive for influencers to comply with duties.

This study is situated within a broader research framework that aligns with the industrious paradigm articulated by Arvidsson (2019). Specifically, our focus lies in scrutinizing the operational dynamics of micro-influencers operating within an economic model characterized by high labor input and minimal capital investment. The lens through which we examine this phenomenon is grounded in a theme already entrenched in the analog dimension—namely, the second-hand and vintage market.

In this research, our primary objective is to gain insight into whether content creators employ their reputational capital on social networks for purposes related to traditional work instead of activities solely associated with the platform itself. We aim to examine the core reasons why content creators invest their time, energy, and aspirations in producing professional content on their social profiles.

To conduct this research, we carried out 15 preliminary semi-structured interviews with micro-influencers who operate on Instagram and/or TikTok in the niche of second-hand and vintage.

We found the micro-influencers to be motivated to create an online reputation, but not with the aspiration of becoming influencers. They devote their efforts to personal branding and sharing second-hand content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok for professionalisation. Even individuals who could potentially (or could easily aspire to) generate direct income from the platform do not dream of becoming influencers. Their dream job is to have a job.