common challenges
that newspapers encounter when they join TikTok
addressing serious topics
December 4th
2020
TikTok is commonly seen as an entertainment platform. In this sense, at first glance it may seem that there is only room for light, simple or funny content in the application. The young age group can also induce this type of conclusion. The journalist SofÃa Altuna, responsible for the TikTok of the Argentine newspaper La Nación, disputes this idea:
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
"There is space for more serious content because young people also want to understand these themes. A 13-year-old teenager may be interested in the same issue that I am interested in. What changes is the way this is going to be addressed - but there is no subject inappropriate for TikTok ".
We are a family owned and operated business.
- SofÃa Altuna , journalist for La Nación
In this tiktok from La Nación, she proves her point: the video is about forest fires in the province of Córdoba, Argentina.
We are a family owned and operated business.
La Nación
8/25/2020
Journalist Francesco Zaffarano, a former social media editor for The Daily Telegraph, goes further :
"The next person who comes to tell me how funny The Washington Post is on TikTok ...
We are a family owned and operated business.
Don't get me wrong - they are funny. It is one of the experiments on social platforms that most interested me this year [2019]. But in this industry, whenever someone has a successful idea, there is a risk that everyone else will just try to reproduce it. And frankly, I don't want to spend the year 2020 thinking about ways to make the morning meeting hilarious because the boomers think this is the way to talk to Generation Z "
- Francesco Zaffarano , editor in chief of WILL Media and
former social media editor for The Daily Telegraph
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
And journalist Max Foster, a CNN anchor in London and owner of one of the biggest journalist profiles on TikTok, endorses the chorus :
We are a family owned and operated business.
“People don't think you can discuss complicated topics on TikTok, but that's not true. You just need to do it in an engaging way and that’s what we should be doing as journalists anyway. "
We are a family owned and operated business.
- Max Foster , CNN anchor and London correspondent.
Has 219k followers on TikTok
other moments
In June, the Black Lives Matter movement ("Vidas Negras Importam", in free translation) had massive repercussions on the network: the hashtag #BML gathered 20 billion views; and #blacklivesmatter, 23.5 billion. The videos, in general, showed the demonstrations in the streets or explained the situation of the protests.
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
BBC UK reporter Sophia Smith Galer produced a mini documentary and podcast showing developments in the 2020 US presidential election on TikTok. She talked to young people who gained prominence on the network with content about politics, even though, in some cases, they are not yet old enough to vote.
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
More recently, for the 2020 Brazilian elections, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) entered into an official partnership with TikTok. In addition to assisting TSE with the creation of videos for their own account , the application fixed, on the home page of all users in Brazil, a guide with frequently asked questions about election day ( check here ).
We are a family owned and operated business.
We are a family owned and operated business.
There are many situations that show that the videos published in the application do not necessarily have to be relaxed. In its letter of entry to TikTok, the French newspaper Le Monde summarizes this idea well: "We will not make publications destined to be frivolous under the pretext of being" aimed at young people ".