Science communication on leisure and mental health on TikTok and Instagram, from the perspective of the researcher-producer: an experience report

Abstract

This article critically analyses the process of science communication from the perspective of a researcher producing content on leisure and mental health for TikTok and Instagram. An experience report was adopted as the method, for its capacity to articulate experiential knowledge with the interaction between researcher, object and context. Over 12 months, 55 short-form videos were published simultaneously on both platforms, on accounts created exclusively for this purpose. Three tensions emerged: between reach and algorithmic logics, between academic rigour and accessibility, and between technical competence and the conditions of production. The analysis shows that producing such content requires not only mastery of the subject matter, but also competences in scripting, recording and editing rarely addressed by academic training. Read through the lenses of virtual and liquid leisure, the experience situates the sustainability of such initiatives less in reach than in the institutional conditions and collaborative arrangements that support them.

KEYWORDS: Virtual leisure, liquid leisure, leisure studies, TikTok, Instagram