Journalism and TikTok - are they compatible?

A teenager lies on his skateboard and looks at his smartphone

If news organisations want to reach the young target group with their messages, they need to learn how to use platforms such as TikTok. FH Burgenland graduate Valentin Lehner developed tips for this in his master's thesis.

Generation Z, today's 14 to 27-year-olds, hardly read newspapers and watch little linear television. In order to reach them, it is advisable for news organisations to venture onto the TikTok platform. In his master's thesis, FH Burgenland graduate Valentin Lehner analysed how news videos should look in order to achieve a high reach.

Eisenstadt, 21.11.2023 - As fast-moving as the hypes and trends surrounding social media platforms seem to be, TikTok has been one of the most popular for several years now. According to analyses, the young target group in particular spends around an hour a day on TikTok and enjoys watching short entertainment videos. Numerous media, such as Der Standard, ORF and the German Tagesschau programme, are now also taking advantage of the opportunity to reach this audience. However, the criteria for conveying information on the platform are different to those of traditional media such as newspapers or linear television.

Valentin Lehner, a graduate of FH Burgenland, analysed 200 TikTok videos from the entire DACH region for his master's thesis in Digital Media and Communication and defined recommendations for action for the media. How can we manage to provide young people with news with a wide reach? This question drove the student. Among other things, he analysed: Which news value factors appear in videos with particularly high reach? Which topics appear in high-reach videos? Which platform-specific characteristics are utilised and how is the suspense built up?

Bad news instead of cat videos

The literature consulted by Valentin Lehner showed that Generation Z is interested in topics such as "friends", "family", "adventure", "culture" and "lifestyle". According to the available literature, stories about animals would also be of interest to the target group.

In the empirical study, however, I was unable to identify any positive impact on the reach of these topics. On the contrary: the topics "culture & lifestyle", "animals" and "environment" were even more common in videos with low reach than in videos with high reach. In order to achieve high reach, stories on topics such as police reports, accidents or crime should be covered in the videos. I also found that the visual depiction of violence also has a significantly positive effect on high reach. Unfortunately, it has to be said: burning cars are the crowd puller.

Valentin Lehner

Is the dancing news journalist coming?

TikTok is still generally associated with funny trends and dance videos. Interestingly, news videos that serve current trends were not among the videos with high reach. "It seems that a news medium is also expected to make an adequate appearance on TikTok, which may not include dancing journalists," says the graduate. Another surprising result of his analysis was that exclusivity of content is detrimental to reach. "If news media produce exclusive content such as street interviews on a specific topic, they do not achieve a high reach according to my analyses."

Topics such as bad news, conflicts and dramas lead to high reach. The prominence of the protagonists, a certain surprise effect and the use of audio-visuals are also helpful.

Recommendations for news media to achieve high reach on TikTok include

  • Covering topics from the areas of conflict, drama, celebrity, surprise
  • Use simple language and short sentences
  • Mentioning the core of the topic in the first two seconds
  • Use of dynamic image content in the first two seconds
  • Use of descriptive subtitles
  • Mention of celebrities and stories of real people
  • Avoidance of humorous and entertaining videos

More about the Master's programme in Digital Media and Communication here.

FH Burgenland

FH Burgenland currently offers 13 Bachelor's, 13 Master's and two PhD programmes at two study centres in Eisenstadt and Pinkafeld. More than 7,700 regular and non-degree students are currently studying in five departments, namely Business, Information Technology, Social Sciences, Energy & Environment and Health, as well as in continuing education programmes.

The press release

The press picture

Further information:
Mag.a Christiane Staab
Marketing & Communication
Fachhochschule Burgenland GmbH
Tel: +43 (0)5 7705 3537
E-Mail: christiane.staab@hochschule-burgenland.at

# Gepostet in:

Back
Teilen:facebooktwitter