Dissertation
"Ladies, do we REALLY need a 'Kamalanomenon'?": discourses of resistance, digital Black feminism, and the attention economy of TikTok during the 2024 U.S. presidential election
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
May 2026
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011426
Abstract
On Sunday July 21, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris launched a historic and electrifying campaign as the first Black-Indian woman to ever run for President of the United States. Harris's campaign was initially strengthened by a surge of cultural and memetic user-generated content on social media through an increased amalgamation of pop culture and politics that would come to be known as the Kamalanomenon. This dissertation explores how TikTok users engaged with the app's technological affordances to participate in and contribute to memetic trends and discourses over the 107 days of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. Using the novel data collection method of algorithm appropriation, over 2,911 videos were collected from TikTok between July 21 and November 5, 2024. Using a rigorous coding and categorization process, thematic analysis was applied to recognize emerging themes within how pro-Harris supporters discussed various aspects of the election. Using Zizi Papacharissi's work on Affective Publics as well as theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Thought from Patricia Hill Collins and Digital Black Feminism from Catherine Knight Steele, findings show distinctions between how affective publics of TikTok contributed to the attention economy, and alternatively how they crafted intentional discourses of resistance. This qualitative study also centers voices of Black female TikTok users and identifies how they use traditional Black feminist thought, such as Black women's activism and transversal politics, to combat anti-Black criticisms and misogynoir. This research contributes to a greater understanding of how American citizens engage with TikTok during developing political events, and how race and gender factored into social media discourses of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
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Details
- Title
- "Ladies, do we REALLY need a 'Kamalanomenon'?"
- Creators
- Maggie S. Riegel
- Contributors
- Wesley Shumar (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University
- Number of pages
- xi, 152 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Communication, Culture, and Media; Communication; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991022189271604721