#NewsOnTikTok : A content analysis of the use of text elements by legacy news media on TikTok

Abstract: With many legacy news media brands struggling to maintain relevance and financial support, they are looking to social networks to connect with new audiences. The video sharing platform TikTok has experienced rapid growth in recent years and has a strong user base of Gen Z users which are a demographic which legacy news media are increasingly attempting to engage with. A number of legacy news media brands have established a presence on TikTok and begun experimenting with different formats. While there have been a few more general analyses of informational content on TikTok, no research to date has focused specifically on how different text elements are used for conveying news. This thesis addresses this gap through investigating how legacy news media (newspapers and TV) are using text, closed captions, and captions on TikTok. Moreover, styles of communication and TikTok editorial tools used by legacy news media are examined in detail. These elements are explored using a quantitative content analysis which analyses 200 videos from eight popular legacy news media brands from the USA, Britain, and Australia. Social media logic and functions specific to TikTok are used as a framework to analyze the problem, with the results showing that most of the legacy news media accounts have somewhat adopted social media logic in their use of text elements on TikTok.