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The days when TikTok was a quirky corner of the internet for teenagers to share their dance videos are over. For millions of people today, TikTok is the internet. And if you are not there, you are missing an opportunity.
The days when TikTok was a quirky corner of the internet for teenagers to share their dance videos are over. For millions of people today, TikTok is the internet. And if you are not there, you are missing an opportunity.
In December 2021, it was announced that TikTok surpassed Facebook and Google as the most visited website and most widely used social media platform. It was also the most downloaded app globally in 2021. It took only five years for TikTok to achieve that kind of success.
It’s where the young and more diverse people are.
It’s where the young and more diverse people are.
In the U.S. alone, 80 million people watch TikTok videos each month: 60% of them are between the ages of 16-24, and 60% of them are female. For a newsrooms who want to diversify their audience, TikTok is a great way to reach a wide range of demographics.
TikTokers care about the same things as journalists.
TikTokers care about the same things as journalists.
TikTok isn't only jokes and dances. The hashtag #climatechange has 1.7 billion views, #socialjustice – 161 million views, #policeviolence – 18 million views. Some TikTokers already use journalism to source their own videos.
In a sense, then, journalism is already “on” TikTok. Here is an example of that from Elise Joshi from Gen Z for Change:
Other journalists are already there
Other journalists are already there
A hyperactive, hyper-opinionated style of TikTok may go against the journalistic values of depth and impartiality (as one viral tweet said: “people who refuse to download TikTok be thinking they got a PhD in maturity.”) But just like with Twitter before, journalists are finding ways to embrace a new, faster form of communication.
The running list of publishers and journalists on TikTok published by Nieman Lab in December 2021 has 276 individual accounts. Some of them are highly successful, such as The Washington Post, which embraced TikTok’s video trends. Another notable example is VICE World News’s senior reporter Sophia Smith Galer, who uses a more personal voice.
Some legacy news organizations, such as The New York Times, are still hesitant to launch on TikTok. Others like The Guardian are struggling to find their voice on the platform. If done right, you can get the benefits of being an early adopter of the platform and help establish a new style of journalism – TikTok journalism.
TikTok's audience is hungry for good journalism.
TikTok's audience is hungry for good journalism.
It’s also a place to hear other stories, not only tell yours.
It’s also a place to hear other stories, not only tell yours.
For many people, TikTok has become a primary place to share their lives. Some of these user-generated stories have high journalistic value.
An example of this phenomenon is #prisontiktok. The hashtag has more than 3 billion views, documenting life in American prisons. In 2020, VICE ran a documentary sourced from these videos. Another highly popular hashtag is #nursesoftiktok. The New York Times used some of their voices for their opinion video "Hospital Greed Is Destroying Our Nurses. Here’s Why".
So even if journalists are not creating TikTok videos themselves, the platform is an important tool for finding stories with a public interest.
This documentary about life in the U.S. prisons was made with material that people in prison themselves uploaded on TikTok.
Presence on TikTok can help journalists achieve strategic goals for you or your organization:
Presence on TikTok can help journalists achieve strategic goals for you or your organization:
Improving journalism in new, surprising, innovative ways;
Engaging younger audiences and meeting people where they are online;
Creating real-world impact;
Increase and diversify membership.
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