Abstract
Since its appearance in 2018, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms among digital natives because of its algorithm-based engagement strategies, a policy of public accounts, and a simple, colorful, and intuitive content interface. As happened in the past with other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, various media are currently seeking ways to adapt to TikTok and its particular characteristics to attract a younger audience less accustomed to the consumption of journalistic material. Against this background, the aim of this study is to identify the presence of the media and journalists on TikTok, measure the virality and engagement of the content they generate, describe the communities created around them, and identify the presence of journalistic use of these accounts. For this, 23,174 videos from 143 accounts belonging to media from 25 countries were analyzed. The results indicate that, in general, the presence and impact of the media in this social network are low and that most of their content is oriented towards the creation of user communities based on viral content and entertainment. However, albeit with a lesser presence, one can also identify accounts and messages that adapt their content to the specific characteristics of TikTok. Their virality and engagement figures illustrate that there is indeed a niche for current affairs on this social network.
Highlights
The constant change and adaptation symbolized by the innovation paradigm are hallmarks of the social communication and journalism that are taught, researched, and practiced in the second decade of the twenty-first century
We study the general presence of the media on TikTok (RQ1) and the virality and engagement achieved by the content they generate (RQ2)
To analyze the current affairs content created by media and journalists on TikTok, we start from the catalog prepared by Zaffarano (2021), which includes 271 accounts that publish current affairs information in 25 countries
Summary
The constant change and adaptation symbolized by the innovation paradigm are hallmarks of the social communication and journalism that are taught, researched, and practiced in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Since the birth of the web, this development has been examined in studies focused on the narratives and content of digital media, including both the web versions of reference journalistic media and the media platforms that emerged in the heat of the so-called social web (Peña-Fernández; Lazkano-Arrillaga; García-González, 2016). In this regard, the most recent contributions regarding the impact and implications of interactive narratives have focused their interest on those media with a majority native digital audience, the so-called centennials or young people belonging to Generation Z, born from the middle of the 1990s to the early 2000s. In recent years, various works and studies have reported a general interest from all types of audiences in obtaining news information through social media (Shearer, 2018; Wang; Gu; Wang, 2019; Pew Research Center, 2021)
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