Testing the waters: TikTok’s potential for television news

Abstract

TikTok has taken the world of mobile apps by storm. In a short period of time, it managed to become the destination of choice for most of the young users and it is currently witnessing the aging of its audience. Mass media has started to test the TikTok waters early in 2019. However, there are still very few TV news channels daring to take the risks and try to lure the TikTok audience to television news. In this article we are evaluating the field of TikTok news players and the platform’s potential to become another popular source of serious information. We are closely analyzing the top two accounts of traditional TV news on TikTok: NBC News and CBS News. As it turns out, there is room for traditional TV formats and adapted for TikTok news bits. Politics remains one of the most demanded by the audience topics. And even though young users emphasize the importance of brevity and entertainment aspect for any potential TV news videos on TikTok, our study results show that even serious and least entertaining videos can get millions of likes and views.