Algorithmic Fatherhood Narratives on TikTok: Finding Meaning-Making and Resilience among Fatherless Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17977/um087v3i22026p132-146Keywords:
Communicative Resilience, Digital Mediation, Fatherless, Meaning-Making, TikTok, Algorithmic CurationAbstract
This study examines how women with fatherless experiences make sense of fatherhood narratives encountered on TikTok and how these meaning-making processes are related to communicative resilience. The study used a qualitative phenomenological design with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four female active TikTok users in Makassar City were purposively selected because they reported fatherless experiences and exposure to fatherhood-related content on the For You Page (FYP). Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and analyzed through familiarization, initial noting, emergent theme development, within-case analysis, cross-case comparison, and negative-case analysis. Five themes were identified: fatherless experiences; fatherhood content as a mirror of experience; emotional ambivalence toward father figures; communicative processes related to self-identity and resilience; and expression or avoidance in digital spaces. The interviews indicate that participants experienced fatherhood content on the FYP as personally relevant and, in some cases, as influencing how they interpreted their fatherless experiences. However, the study did not collect platform logs or conduct an algorithm audit; therefore, the findings concern participants’ experience and interpretation of algorithmically curated exposure rather than the technical operation of TikTok’s recommendation system. Meaning-making was characterized by renewed comparison between broader beliefs about fatherhood and participants’ lived experiences of absence. Communicative resilience was uneven: I2 showed active network use through liking, commenting, and sharing, while I3 and I4 articulated self-affirming or alternative meanings without comparable public engagement, and I1 provided a negative case with emotional distance and avoidance. The study contributes a communication-centered account of how algorithmically curated media can become a context and symbolic resource for meaning-making, while showing that exposure alone does not establish resilience.
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