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Accepted Paper:
Clash of Expectations and Video-call Obligation. New Italians (Self) Mocking in a TikTok Ethnography
Francesco Bachis
(University of Cagliari)
The paper reflects on the use of (self)mockery as resistance in the video production of new Italians on TikTok focusing on two plots: Expectations vs. reality of the migration and migrants’ lives in Italy; Video calls obligations to relatives.
Paper Abstract:
The New Italians’ voice in the public debate has sometimes emerged within some significant arenas of the national popular culture. Despite the high success of some singers or dancers, their celebrity does not seem to reshape the so-called ‘second generation' social representation. The increase of the social media TikTok, mainly used by teenagers, seems to have provided a social arena capable of reconfiguring 'from below' the representations of migrants and young people who come from migration (Bachis 2023).
Drawing from a digital ethnography on New Italians on TikTok, the paper analyses two specific video meme patterns and their diffusion among New Italians: 1. Expectations vs. reality of the migration and migrants’ lives in Italy; 2. Video calls obligations to relatives.
Broadly speaking, mockery and jokes characterize a great part of the contents of TikTok. Yet, the (self)mockery created by young migrants seems to represent a significant fortunate case. This is true also for the world's TikTok celebrity Khaby Lame - who was born in Dakar and grew up in Piedmont. The paper reflects on the use of (self)mockery as a form of resistance against the negative representation of migrants and the widespread vision of migration as a problem.