Media
Grace McNabney
From Screen to Scroll: Can We Measure how TikTok Contributed Heated Rivalry’s Overall Success and Broader Cultural Reach?
Grace McNabney is a fourth-year Professional Communications student pursuing a minor in Public Relations. She has a strong passion for the entertainment and sports industries, as well as popular culture and social media. In particular, she is interested in combining these passions with the skills she has developed throughout her four years in the program, while further exploring how current trends within these industries can be understood through the lens of various communication techniques.
These interests are reflected in her chosen research topic. For example, when a global phenomenon such as the TV series Heated Rivalry emerges, Grace is eager to dive deeper into its overall impact and examine how new levels of “virality” are achieved through social media analytics and fan engagement with the show.
After graduation, Grace aspires to build a career in the media and entertainment industry as a publicist!
This research project examines the relationship between TikTok virality and television popularity on a broader scale and cultural reach, using Heated Rivalry as a case study.
Heated Rivalry didn’t simply gain viewers. It became part of the algorithm. Clips flooded For You Pages. Fan edits reached millions of views. Audio from the show became trending sounds. Comment sections became spaces of debate, interpretation, and remix culture. This raises an important question: Was this simply fandom enthusiasm, or can we measure how TikTok contributed to the show’s overall success and cultural reach?
Using a mixed methods approach, this research contained both qualitative and quantitative data derived from TikTok analytics, which included counts, shares, views and qualitative comment meta data. This approach was factored into a data set of “viral” TikTok videos, featuring clips from the show, fan edits, and official media outlet press videos.
The series connects with diverse viewers: sports fans, LGBTQ+ audiences, romance viewers, and general mainstream audiences. Its themes circulate digitally, but its cultural presence manifests offline as well. This project contributes to communication studies by reframing how we define media success. It challenges ratings-based models and positions algorithmic visibility, participatory culture, and symbolic recognition as measurable forms of cultural power.
In today’s media landscape, success is not confined to a single platform. It is networked, participatory and, it is amplified.
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