CMLTD Professor Ioana Literat has been defining what it means to be a public scholar for quite some time. She is regularly quoted in news outlets such as the New York Times, NBC News, and The Globe and Mail, and she has been featured on outlets such as PBS Newshour, Vox, and Vice on Showtime. Professor Literat’s work studying young people’s creative and civic participation in online spaces is integral to understanding how youth engage in today’s political landscape, and the amount of press her research receives is proof of this.
With articles such as “Is TikTok breaking young voters’ brains” (Vox, 2024) and “TikTok is under intense scrutiny when it comes to U.S. politics, but candidates can’t afford to stay away” (Globe and Mail, 2024) citing her work, Professor Literat’s research about Gen-Z voters on TikTok is at the forefront of many conversations surrounding the platform. These articles, among many others, draw on her more than six years of research about TikTok which grew out of her work studying the platform musical.ly.
Further, Professor Literat has also discussed how youth utilize social media platforms as discursive spaces about important social issues. In a 2022 interview with ABC News, she discusses the tone of debates about abortion online. In 2023, she was quoted in a Bloomberg Article discussing how “Nukefluencers” use TikTok to promote nuclear power as a potential clean energy source.
Professor Literat’s work has also helped to shape the public’s understanding of how social media affects youth mental health, and what role it plays in their identity development. In a March 2024 special report by Education Weekly, she draws on articles such as “Memes in the time of corona: An autoethnographic visual essay on memes as relational resources during the COVID-19 pandemic” (2021) and “‘Good social media?’: Underrepresented youth perspectives on the ethical and equitable design of social media platforms” (2020) co-authored with Melissa Brough and Amanda Ikin. Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, this work has become particularly important.
Professor Literat’s public scholarship speaks directly to her commitments to making tangible social change via her research. As the Associate Director of the Media and Social Change Lab (MASCLab), she also collaborates with CMLTD students to develop work that has broad impact both within and outside of the academy. In her forthcoming book, Not Your Parents' Politics: Understanding Young People's Political Expression on Social Media, co-authored with Professor Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, we anticipate that her work will continue to grow an even broader audience. We look forward to reading it!