“It’s so niche,” said Adam Powell, owner of @adampowellatx on TikTok. “There’s no way the algorithm’s ever going to pick this up.”
Twenty-nine-year-old Powell grew up in Leander, north of Austin, and now has 7,769 followers as an Austin-based content creator, posting about local and campus history. He said he started his account as a hobby-turned-platform, amassing over 2 million views in one year.
“It’s clear to me (Powell) uses clothing as a way to signal his identity without necessarily going deep into saying he’s an Austinite,” said journalism assistant professor Josephine Lukito. “He certainly wears clothing to illustrate his affiliation.”
Due to the nature of his format, users can spot Powell wearing Austin Football Club jerseys, generic t-shirts and hoodies to the backdrop of historical photos and documents.
“There’s a level of intentionally,” Powell said. “There’s also a level of laziness and being in an AC-filled corner of my house.”
Historical short-form content can be prone to “hearsay,” said Lukito, who studies multi-form misinformation. The main challenge is the lack of reliable resources and the limitations of spotting misinformation in videos.
“A lot of the tools that (researchers) use to detect and identify and remove missing disinformation really depend on text,” Lukito said.
To combat this, Powell encourages his followers to fact-check and share their own research in the comments of his videos.
Recent videos include a collaboration with CASA of Travis County, an organization training volunteers to aid children in the welfare system. The video, currently sitting at 1.6k views, informs his followers of the program and encourages them to volunteer.
“What really inspired the focus on that is just a recognition that … I can shine attention into places that, in my opinion, need it,” Powell said.
Powell also devoted a series on his account to Project Connect updates and posts about local issues.
These videos are not Powell’s first experience with community organizing. He, along with other undergraduates at Texas Christian University, led a campus-wide protest in 2015, leading to the creation of an African American Studies minor. The rough curriculum stemmed from a class project.
“We’re standing against this racist stuff happening on campus, but what are we really going to ask for?” Powell said. “Then me and one of the other students who worked on (the project) raised our hands and we’re like, ‘Hey, we have a curriculum’ … and that became the thing we were asking for.”
While developing his content, Powell said he remains committed to covering the historical quirks and intricacies of Austin. He intends to go “more hyperlocal” in the future, including more content about the history of the University.
“You can’t tell the history of Austin without talking about UT’s history,” Powell said. “There’s only 1839 through 1883 that UT didn’t exist in Austin, and Austin barely existed during those years.”
Powell’s mother and fiancé earned their master’s and law degrees, respectively, from the University. Powell’s father, Philip Powell acted as a tenured professor at the University for 19 years. Previously, he taught at Yale. Powell’s father died last May, his obituary describes him as “a trailblazer for Black educators.”
“That’s the root of my connection to all of this stuff is my dad,” Powell said “I just think about his time at UT (and) that’s really the core of why I have this passion.”
