It’s been almost 4 years since I made it for the first time. tick tockWhen I was working as a video journalist there, he was bobbing with a twinkle in his eye on the third floor of the BBC’s new broadcasting station. It’s not just the length of her hair that has changed. In the time it took for my hair to grow past my elbows, news media representation on TikTok exploded. This is a win for the digital audience that has flocked to it – or so it seemed until new research was published this month.
Researcher Nick Hager new york times and Nicholas Diakopoulos of Northwestern University. I presented my research at new media and society It investigated how news content is amplified and recommended on TikTok For You pages. As of the end of 2022, the Reuters Institute for Journalism Research found that nearly half (49 percent) of the world’s top news publishers were posting on TikTok, and many more have joined TikTok since then. Please keep this in mind.
To find out how often these publishers are suggested to users, Hagar and Diakopoulos developed a methodology because TikTok doesn’t allow API access, a technical tool needed to dig deeper into the platform. needed to be created. First, they started a “pipeline” to collect recommended accounts from TikTok. washington post, NBC News, National Public Radio, and PBS News. They subsequently created a list of recommended news production accounts. That list had to be either news publishers, professional journalists, or news aggregators/commentators. Sixty bots with varying levels of interest in the news were then programmed to detect or decide whether to watch or skip a video based on its overlap with the day’s transcript. new york times Heading. Of her 6,568 videos provided to the bot, only six of his videos fit the creator’s news classification.
While the findings are not reassuring to read for news providers, they should come as no surprise to experienced app news producers. The decision to start the process first by starting with four prominent U.S. news accounts rather than four prominent news accounts. creator Users who may be unaffiliated with news outlets are also an interesting choice, given that we know that users are much more likely to follow your own work than mainstream news accounts.
of Reuters Institute for Journalism has long found that viewers across all platforms, including TikTok but also YouTube and Instagram, are more willing to consume content from “personalities” than mainstream news accounts. According to the institute’s 2022 Digital News Report, Twitter was the last app in the social media ecosystem that still valued mainstream news providers, but even that reification has likely begun to rot since Mr. Musk. . So it’s not surprising that the study’s authors found that mainstream news media accounts were rarely recommended. To begin with, they didn’t plant the beginnings of their methodology using the most engaged news accounts on the app.
“Traditional media is trying to use the same metrics of success as before.” V. Spehar, who creates news content as @Underthedesknews, spoke to Mashable in response to the study. “And new media doesn’t work in that world, especially on TikTok, where there’s more emphasis on peer learning, niche content, and the personality of the news communicator.”
They go on to say, “TikTok has emerged as a news source despite being a trad media and was built as a place to escape cable news. This has led people to believe that all of these creators are somehow ‘not bought’. “No,” he added, “and we’ve gotten used to the idea that it’s more reliable, that it’s not.” They are part of the establishment…even though all of their research and published articles come directly from legacy media in most cases. ”
Resistance on the part of journalists to create content on TikTok is often due to lack of confidence on camera, lack of video training, or mistakenly thinking that TikTok is for teenagers. For a variety of reasons, this has led to a strange media polarization. The app often has accounts for news creators who either have accounts with mainstream news outlets or are not affiliated with traditional media at all. Few of us straddle both worlds. I used to create original TikTok content for him while working as a reporter for the BBC and then VICE News, but now I work as a freelancer. max foster She works as a CNN news anchor and creates TikTok.
Foster has 1.2 million followers, twice as many as I do, and neither of us have any followers. dylan page, a TikTok “news dad” with 9.8 million followers who repeatedly creates viral content, mainly news articles from his diary. As Spehar explained, the majority of his articles come directly from legacy media. A traditional journalist would frown at his statement. I was in Saudi Arabia recently. or has been paid to create content If they care about the stock but don’t have the salaries of their staff journalists, news creators must make ends meet in a way that stands in stark contrast to the traditional values that center independent journalism. This shows that TikTok’s new media environment requires a change in values that traditional news media has avoided. But news creators like him know how to make independent journalism (usually someone else’s) work incredibly well online, better than original authors or breaking news experts. And if news media want to keep up with the times, they can’t avoid it.
Younger viewers have a much broader definition of what is considered newsworthy.
The Nieman Institute took a gloomy look at the study with the hilarious headline, “News Can’t Find You on TikTok.” But my reaction wasn’t so defeated. If you decide that news only comes from traditional media and that only “hard news” is allowed, then that’s probably the case. But younger viewers have a much broader definition of what is considered newsworthy. These will almost certainly be contrasted with something newsworthy. new york times The authors’ study was deemed newsworthy. Traditional news media accounts also receive little viewership. His Sky News followers on TikTok just hit 5 million, and my former team at VICE News has 3.5 million followers.This content teeth Being seen and involved.
I’ve always found it useful to define this content space as information rather than news. Because the moment you interpret it that way, you realize how much information is bombarded on TikTok every day. You don’t have to be a news creator to create content about news and information. Videos talking about the news are created every day by creators from all walks of life around the world.
That’s why other studies and polls have shown that viewers are increasingly turning to TikTok for news. Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President, Google previously revealed “Almost 40% of young people don’t use Google Maps or Search when looking for a place to eat lunch; they use TikTok or Instagram.” The survey targeted users. In the UK, OfCom’s 2023 Report A survey on news consumption found that one in 10 adults use TikTok for news, proving the app has overtaken BBC Radio 1 and Channel 5. TikTok reaches 20% of 18-24 year olds across the world market Especially when it comes to news.
As our understanding of the online ecosystem shifts from social media to algorithmic media, the type of content that is amplified on a platform’s algorithms will become increasingly important to news providers. In the old days of social media, follower counts mattered, and viewers would automatically search for and follow the legacy media accounts they habitually listened to. We now receive content that is curated by platforms based on our habits and repertoire of videos that are most appealing to us. If a news outlet is not willing to produce content comparable to professional news creators, their video will not be published.
“I think it’s hard to make room for both,” Spehar said. “Dynamic, well-trained research and journalism by trad media personnel, and dynamic, well-curated presentation of stories by TikTok personalities.”
“I need both.”
