Platformed Participation and the Digital Reconfiguration of Intangible Cultural Heritage on Douyin

Abstract

In the media environment dominated by digital platforms, the dissemination of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) increasingly is embedded in the platform-based interactive structure. The public is no longer merely recipients of cultural information; instead, they participate in the generation and reproduction of cultural significance through daily interactions such as liking, commenting, and sharing. However, most existing studies start from the communication effect or the scale of participation, tending to equate interaction with cultural participation, and pay less attention to the structural differences and cultural consequences implied behind platform-based interaction. Based on this problem awareness, this paper takes the short videos of ICH on the Douyin platform as the research object, and combines the theories of media accessibility and participatory culture to analyze how digital platforms reconstruct the ways and conditions for public participation in ICH through differentiated interactive models. Through principal component analysis and cluster analysis of large-scale user interaction data, this paper identifies multiple interaction structure types with significant discrimination and examines their distribution differences among different content categories, account types, and video features. Research has found that the interaction of ICH on the platform does not unfold uniformly but presents a distinct hierarchical structure: there is a systematic differentiation in the form of interaction and the depth of participation between high-interaction and low-interaction videos. Meanwhile, there is a non-linear relationship between the scale of followers and actual interaction, indicating that platform visibility does not necessarily translate into substantive cultural participation. Furthermore, different types of ICH content and account subjects occupy unequal positions in the platform's interactive structure, reflecting the screening and reconstruction role that digital platforms play in cultural dissemination. The research in this paper indicates that public participation on digital platforms is not merely an expansion process but is redefined in the interweaving of platform logic and cultural practice. By revealing the interactive structural characteristics of ICH in a platform-based environment, this paper provides empirical support and theoretical reflection for understanding the socio-cultural implications of public participation in digital cultural dissemination.