“TikTok vs. Reality”—the Social Construction of Urban Landscape in TikTok Videos Using the Example of Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, CA

In recent years, Echo Park Lake in central Los Angeles, CA, underlies a multi-faceted urban landscape conflict about diverging spatial needs, demands and ideas. The conflicts between the various park users, residents and government instances culminated almost two years ago with the municipal-led and publicly protested eviction of a community of almost 200 unhoused individuals that were seeking shelter on the Western edge of the lake. In addition to the dispersal of the community, the eviction has led to the installation of fences, surveillance technology and the nightly closure of the park, which has caused ongoing criticism. Simultaneously, the neighborhood of Echo Park is changing demographically—particularly since the 1990s—and residents are voicing concerns about neighborhood change and gentrification. In the present paper, it is of interest what and if aspects of these spatial conflicts are found in TikTok videos on the urban green space of Echo Park Lake and what landscape notions the videos are built on. Arguing for the increasing role of social media platforms in the social construction of reality, the focus is directed on the portrayed elements and objects, the used camera angles and views axes, the narratives and discussed subjects in the first 100 videos for the search term “Echo Park Lake.”