Featured image of tarot cards (HelloGlow.co n.d.) via Pinterest
Summary of Tarot Card Reading: Digital Artefact
For my autoethnographic study I chose a particular niche that is constantly showing up on my TikTok ‘for you page’. This niche is tarot card readings. But first, what is Autoethnography? Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that lets authors use personal experiences to deepen societal understanding (Wall 2006). Tarot reading can be traced throughout history, with the earliest mentions of tarot card reading being traced back to Europe in the 14th Century (Husband 2016). In recent years tarot reading has increased in popularity. People utilise this activity to interpret the world and personal events through a different lens. A cultural aspect also surrounds this niche as the act of tarot reading is usually central to an individual’s spiritual beliefs. Tarot reading is used to guide individuals towards their own spiritual journey and their connection to the divine. This is said to be done through intuition and mystical science. In this niche psychics will film themselves going through the chosen cards and explaining what each card means. However, there is no definitive answer to the accuracy of this practice, it is simply up to each individual to discover and practise their own beliefs (Gurseerat 2023).
Platforms:
Social media has become a mainstream media platform, linking a third of the global population (Dolan et al. 2016). Throughout this study I have been conducting ethnographic research on two social media platforms: Instagram and TikTok. The aim of my research is to uncover the community’s understanding and perspectives within this activity, while exploring the potential success of new formats and styles within this niche as I focus more on the conversation instead of simply broadcasting content (Christison 2023). Instagram is a platform that is predominantly used to see what family and friends are up to, and is used as a leisure tool to consume content produced by others (Haenlein et al. 2020). On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly obvious that TikTok has emerged as the preferred social platform for creative content despite only being around for a short amount of time. (Frăţilă 2021). Yet, it is also important to note the scepticism that surrounds TikTok tarot readings as some people attribute the platform’s personalised readings to the algorithm rather than psychic ability (Johnston 2021). Typically the tarot card and psychic readings on my FYP tell me “This reading is meant for you”, however, I wonder how can this complete stranger know that this specific message will reach me or are they just relying on the TikTok algorithm to reach the people that their content will interest and resonate with? (Schellewald 2021).
Before conducting my participatory research I had to do some personal reflection as an ethnographer’s research also includes their own experiences (Pink et al. 2016). I utilised a variety of ethnographic skills throughout my research, including; narrowing, conceptualising, reflexivity, exploring, approaching, problematising, data collection, participation observation, flexibility, comparing, contrasting, including and sensitivity.
Content Generation:
Before the Internet, content creation and distribution was always an expensive and difficult process, however, now making online digital content is dramatically easier, faster, and cheaper (Blank 2013). For my first piece of content surrounding tarot card reading I decided to make a “guess the card” video where I showed a small glimpse of a tarot card and asked the audience to guess which card it was. After five seconds I reveal the card so they can see if they got it right. I thought this would be a fun way for me to enter this niche as a new creator and differentiate myself. I then repurposed this video into image slides using Canva for my Instagram posts.
After I produced and published my content, I observed that even though the same content was posted on both platforms, they received different amounts of attention. After 2 days the TikTok video had 831 views while the Instagram post only reached 22 accounts. Clearly, I was more successful at building my audience on TikTok compared to Instagram due to TikTok’s highly developed algorithm (Worb 2022). However, It is important for me and others publishing social media content to remember that “the relationship between visual complexity and consumer liking on social media is not linear” (Overgoor et al. 2021).
I feel an ethical matter I should have considered is providing a disclaimer to my audience to ensure that people do not believe my posts are spiritually accurate to avoid risk of harm (Townsend & Wallace 2016). This transparency will help me build trust within my audience which is a critical element for social media success (Kim & Ahmad 2013).
For my second round of content creation, I created a Tarot and pop culture video comparing tarot cards to popular characters in movies (Worb 2022). The aim of this is to make tarot cards more engaging for my audience. For Instagram, I displayed this information with images of the pop culture characters in the slide format. Then, pivoting to my TikTok content I transformed this information into a video format.
Following the upload to my instagram account, I noted a promising uptick in likes on my posts. Upon publishing my TikTok video I noticed that despite using my account to interact with other creators, this video received a similar amount of likes and views as my initial video, however, received more saves.
Before I began filming my TikTok video I had conducted some research on how to do a reading (Timmons 2015). To create the video, I replicated the other tarot readings that are on TikTok. I also incorporated sensitive wording and calm music to set the tone of the video. To adapt this content for Instagram, I opted to post slide images by photographing the relevant cards and uploaded them as individual slides.
I was pleased when after 48 hours this TikTok video had already received more attention than my previous 2 videos. Although I had predicted this based on my previous observations. Subsequently, I uploaded my instagram images, yet contrarily, it received the same amount of likes and views as my previous instagram post.
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