This guide is short, simple, and tailored by journalists for journalists. Although it was created with a specific newsroom in mind, we hope that it will be a helpful tool for every journalist and newsroom willing to experiment on the platform.

In no way it was intended de be a final document —i t’s a work in progress, just like the ever-evolving social media and TikTok culture.

The initial version of this guide was created in May 2022 by NYU's Studio 20 cohort: Sinta Taylor, Noah John, Marcello Corrêa, Karolis Vyšniauskas, Saman Shafiq, Carla Nudel, Thu K. Dao, Jeff Poirier and Jonathan Ray, with the supervision of Intercept video producer Travis Mannon and professor Jay Rosen. 

This is an updated version of the guide elaborated by Sinta Taylor and Carla Nudel in September 2022 for the purpose of sharing our experience at the panel given at ONA.

It's divided into 7 sections:

If you (or some people in your newsroom) are not convinced yet, we sum up some of the benefits of being on the platform.

To perform well on TikTok, it is important to understand how the platform works. We've put together a list of crucial best practices to get you started.

How do I start if I want to take my Journalism to TikTok and what are the necessary steps? You'll find all you need to know about the creation process in this section.

To thrive on the platform, you don't necessarily need to do it all by yourself. Here we explain how helpful it could be for your newsroom to partner with external creators.

Although we suggest being on TikTok to help your journalism reach new audiences, that doesn't mean there aren't legitimate criticisms of the platform. This section summarizes the issues we think any journalist using the platform should be aware of.

This is the result of the consulting work we did for The Intercept, summarized in nine specific action items. Although they were elaborated with The Intercept in mind, we included them in this version of our guide because we believe they could also be an inspiration for any journalist or media outlet considering diving into TikTok. 

If you want to learn more about TikTok as a platform, this is where you should go.