Soft news in original videos. Adaptation to TikTok of the main Spanish online media

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2023.mar.22

Keywords:

Digital journalism, Legacy media, New media, Social media, Hybrid media system, TikTok, Short videos, Native videos, Soft news, Hard news, Content analysis, Spain

Abstract

Since the beginning of 2020, media around the world have started and intensified their TikTok activity to gain notoriety and reach young people, their main user group. However, as with other previously popularized social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, the platform´s logic is different from that traditionally employed by the media system when developing information products. The objective of this paper is to analyze the degree of adaptation to the logic of this network for the activity developed on it by the Spanish media. For this purpose, a combined methodology of quantitative and content analysis was applied to 446 videos posted by the official user accounts of 20 Minutos, Antena 3 Noticias, El Diario, El Mundo, and El Paí­s -the five media outlets with the largest online audience in that period -from the time the accounts were created until January 31, 2022. Specifically, we studied the activity developed, the notoriety achieved, and the interaction obtained, as well as the most common formats, topics, protagonists, and brand identity elements. The results show that the main Spanish media have tried to adapt to the entertainment logic of the platform both with the use of native editing resources as well as through the creation of original materials, predominantly soft news, about entertainment, celebrities, and lifestyle. The videos that gain more notoriety are those that are more adapted to this logic. However, the Spanish media analyzed post less frequently than international media, obtain fewer views, and register lower engagement levels; in addition, they do not use their presence on this social network to promote their other editorial products. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anderson, Katie-Elson (2020). "Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: it is time to talk about TikTok". Library hi tech news, v. 37, n. 4, pp. 7-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2020-0001

Aruguete, Natalia (2017). "Agenda building. Revisión de la literatura sobre el proceso de construcción de la agenda mediática". Signo y pensamiento, v. 36, n. 70, pp. 36-52. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.syp36-70.abrl

Ballesteros-Herencia, Carlos A. (2020). "La propagación digital del coronavirus: midiendo el engagement del entretenimiento en la red social emergente TikTok". Revista española de comunicación en salud, suplemento 1, pp. 171-185. https://doi.org/10.20318/recs.2020.5459

Basch, Corey H.; Meleo-Erwin, Zoe; Fera, Joseph; Jaime, Christie; Basch, Charles E. (2021). "A global pandemic in the time of viral memes: Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation on TikTok". Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, v. 17, n. 8, pp. 2373-2377. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2021.1894896

Bhandari, Aparajita; Bimo, Sara (2022). "Why´s everyone on TikTok now? The algorithmized self and the future of self-making on social media". Social media + society, v. 8, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221086241

Briskman, Jonathan (2022). Q1 2022: Store intelligence data digest report. Sensor Tower, April. https://sensortower.com/blog/q1-2022-data-digest

Bucknell-Bossen, Christina; Kottasz, Rita (2020). "Uses and gratifications sought by pre-adolescent and adolescent TikTok consumers". Young consumers, v. 21, n. 4, pp. 463-478. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-07-2020-1186

Castells, Manuel (2009). Comunicación y poder. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. ISBN: 978 84 206 8499 4

Cervi, Laura; Marí­n-Lladó, Carles (2021). "What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case". Profesional de la información, v. 30, n. 4, e300403. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.jul.03

Cervi, Laura; Tejedor, Santiago; Marí­n-Lladó, Carles (2021). "TikTok and the new language of political communication". Cultura, lenguaje y representación, v. 26, pp. 267-287. https://doi.org/10.6035/clr.5817

Chadwick, Andrew (2013). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978 0 190696740

Chen, Zhuang; He, Qian; Mao, Zhifei; Chung, Hwei-Ming; Maharjan, Sabita (2019). "A study on the characteristics of douyin short videos and implications for edge caching". In: ACM TURC´19. Proceedings or the ACM Turing celebration conference, art. 13. https://www.doi.org/10.1145/3321408.3323082

Cheng-Stahl, Catherine; Literat, Ioana (2022). "#GenZ on TikTok: the collective online self-portrait of the social media generation". Journal of youth studies, first online. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2053671

Freelon, Deen (2013). "ReCal OIR: Ordinal, interval, and ratio intercoder reliability as a web service". International journal of internet science, v. 8, n. 1, pp. 10-16. https://www.ijis.net/ijis8_1/ijis8_1_freelon.pdf

Gamir-Rí­os, José; Sánchez-Castillo, Sebastián (2022). "The political irruption of short video: Is TikTok a new window for Spanish parties?". Communication & society, v. 35, n. 2, pp. 37-52. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.35.2.37-52

Garcí­a-Marí­n, David; Salvat-Martinrey, Guiomar (2022). "Viralizar la verdad. Factores predictivos del engagement en el contenido verificado en TikTok". Profesional de la información, v. 31, n. 2, e310210. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.mar.10

Garcí­a-Orosa, Berta; López-Garcí­a, Xosé; Vázquez-Herrero, Jorge (2020). "Journalism in digital native media: Beyond technological determinism". Media and communication, v. 8, n. 2, pp. 5-15. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i2.2702

Garcí­a-Rivero, Ainhoa; Martí­nez-Estrella, Eva-Citlali; Bonales-Daimiel, Gema (2022). "TikTok y Twitch: New media and formulas to impact the Generation Z". Icono 14, v. 20, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v20i1.1770

Herrero-Curiel, Eva; La-Rosa, Leonardo (2022). "Secondary education students and media literacy in the age of disinformation. [Los estudiantes de secundaria y la alfabetización mediática en la era de la desinformación]". Comunicar, v. 30, n. 73, pp. 95-106. https://doi.org/10.3916/C73-2022-08

IAB Spain (2022). Estudio de redes sociales 2022. https://iabspain.es/estudio/estudio-de-redes-sociales-2022

Ibarra-Herrera, Daniela (2020). "Análisis discursivo en sistemas hí­bridos de medios: una aproximación metodológica". Logos, v. 30, n. 2, pp. 314-330. https://doi.org/10.15443/RL3024

Igartua, Juan-José (2006). Métodos cuantitativos de investigación en comunicación. Barcelona: Bosch. ISBN: 978 84 9790 271 7

Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press. ISBN: 978 0 8147 4281 5

Kaye, D. Bondy-Valdovinos; Chen, Xu; Zeng, Jing (2021). "The co-evolution of two Chinese mobile short video apps: Parallel platformization of Douyin and TikTok". Mobile media & communication, v. 9, n. 2, pp. 229-253. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920952120

Klug, Daniel (2020). ""˜Jump in and be part of the fun´. How U.S. news providers use and adapt to TikTok". In: Midwest Popular Culture Association/Midwest American Culture Association annual conference (MPCA/ACA).

Krippendorff, Klaus (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. ISBN: 0 7619 1544 3

Lasorsa, Dominic L.; Lewis, Seth C.; Holton, Avery E. (2012). "Normalizing Twitter: Journalism practice in an emerging communication space". Journalism studies, v. 13, n. 1, pp. 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2011.571825

López-Garcí­a, Guillermo (2015). Periodismo digital: Redes, audiencias y modelos de negocio. Salamanca: Comunicación Social. ISBN: 978 84 15544 93 7

Lu, Xing; Lu, Zhicong (2019). "Fifteen seconds of fame: A qualitative study of Douyin, a short video sharing mobile application in China". In: Meiselwitz, Gabriele (ed.). Social computing and social media: Design, human behavior and analytics. HCII 2019. Lecture notes in computer science, v. 11578. Cham: Springer, pp. 233-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21902-4_17

Lu, Xing; Lu, Zhicong; Liu, Changqing (2020). "Exploring TikTok use and non-use". In: Meiselwitz, Gabriele (ed.). Social computing and social media: Participation, user experience, consumer experience, and applications of social computing. HCII 2020. Lecture notes in computer science, v. 12195. Cham: Springer, pp. 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49576-3_5

Martí­nez-Costa, Marí­a-Pilar; Sánchez-Blanco, Cristina; Serrano-Puche, Javier (2019). "News consumption of hard and soft topics in Spain: Sources, formats and access routes". Communications, v. 45, n. 2, pp. 198-222. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-2051

Medina-Serrano, Juan-Carlos; Papakyriakopoulos, Orestis; Hegelich, Simon (2020). "Dancing to the partisan beat: A first analysis of political communication on TikTok". In: 12th ACM Conference on web science, pp. 257-266. https://doi.org/10.1145/3394231.3397916

Negreira"Rey, Marí­a-Cruz; Vázquez"Herrero, Jorge; López"Garcí­a, Xosé (2022). "Blurring boundaries between journalists and tiktokers: Journalistic role performance on TikTok". Media and communication, v. 10, n. 1, pp. 146-156. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4699

Neuendorf, Kimberly A. (2016). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. ISBN: 978 1 412979474

Newman, Nic; Fletcher, Richard; Levy, David A. L.; Nielsen, Rasmus-Kleis (2016). Digital news report 2016. University of Oxford & Reuters Institute. ISBN: 978 1 907384 19 6 https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2016/

Newman, Nic; Fletcher, Richard; Robertson, Craig T.; Eddy, Kristen; Nielsen, Rasmus-Kleis (2022). Digital news report 2022. University of Oxford & Reuters Institute. ISBN: 978 1 907384 98 1 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022

Newman, Nic; Fletcher, Richard; Schulz, Anne; Andi, Simge; Robertson, Craig T.; Nielsen, Rasmus-Kleis (2021). Digital news report 2021. University of Oxford & Reuters Institute. ISBN: 978 1 907384 90 5 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021

Omar, Bahiyah; Dequan, Wang (2020). "Watch, share or create: The influence of personality traits and user motivation on TikTok mobile video usage". International journal of interactive mobile technologies, v. 14, n. 4, pp. 121-137. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v14i04.12429

Patterson, Thomas E. (2000). Doing well and doing good: How soft news and critical journalism are shrinking the news audience and weakening democracy - and what news outlets can do about it. USA: Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. http://www.uky.edu/AS/PoliSci/Peffley/pdf/475PattersonSoftnews%281-11-01%29.pdf

Peña-Fernández, Simón; Larrondo-Ureta, Ainara; Morales-i-Gras, Jordi (2022). "Current affairs on TikTok: Virality and entertainment for digital natives". Profesional de la información, v. 31, n. 1, e310106. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.ene.06

Pérez-Serrano, Marí­a-José; Garcí­a-Santamarí­a, José-Vicente (2021). "El papel de los periodistas influencers en las empresas mediáticas: su valor, poder y condiciones económicas". Estudios sobre el mensaje periodí­stico, v. 27, n. 1, pp. 399-408. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.70266

Reinemann, Carsten; Stanyer, James; Scherr, Sebastian; Legnante, Guido (2011). "Hard and soft news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings". Journalism, v. 13, n. 2, pp. 221-239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911427803

Salaverrí­a, Ramón; Martí­nez-Costa, Marí­a-Pilar (2021). Medios nativos digitales en España: Caracterización y tendencias. Salamanca: Comunicación Social. ISBN: 978 84 17600 60 0

Schellewald, Andreas (2021). "Communicative forms on TikTok: Perspectives from digital ethnography". International journal of communication, v. 15, n. 21, pp. 1437-1457. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/16414

Scolari, Carlos A. (2013). Narrativas transmedia: Cuando todos los medios cuentan. Barcelona: Deusto. ISBN: 978 84 23413362

Shutsko, Aliaksandra (2020). "User-generated short video content in social media: A case study of TikTok". In: Meiselwitz, Gabriele (ed.). Social computing and social media. participation, user experience, consumer experience, and applications of social computing. HCII 2020. Lecture notes in computer science, v. 12195. Cham: Springer, pp. 108-125. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49576-3_8

Sidorenko-Bautista, Pavel; Alonso-López, Nadia; Giacomelli, Fabio (2021). "Espacios de verificación en TikTok. Comunicación y formas narrativas para combatir la desinformación". Revista latina de comunicación social, n. 79, pp. 87-113. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2021-1522

Sidorenko-Bautista, Pavel; Herranz-de-la-Casa, José-Marí­a; Cantero-de-Julián, Juan-Ignacio (2021). "Use of new narratives for Covid-19 reporting: From 360º videos to ephemeral TikTok videos in online media". Tripodos, v. 1, n. 47, pp. 105-122. https://doi.org/10.51698/tripodos.2020.47p105-122

Silva-Rodrí­guez, Alba; Vázquez-Herrero, Jorge; Negreira-Rey, Marí­a-Cruz (2022). "Actualización de las fases del contenido periodí­stico para dispositivos móviles". Revista de comunicación, v. 21, n. 1, pp. 367-387. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC21.1-2022-A19

Suárez-Álvarez, Rebeca; Garcí­a-Jiménez, Antonio (2021). "Centennials en TikTok: tipologí­a de ví­deos: Análisis y comparativa España-Gran Bretaña por género, edad y nacionalidad". Revista latina de comunicación social, n. 79. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2021-1503

Vázquez-Herrero, Jorge; Negreira-Rey, Marí­a-Cruz; López-Garcí­a, Xosé (2022). "Let´s dance the news! How the news media are adapting to the logic of TikTok". Journalism, v. 23, n. 8, pp. 1717-1735. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920969092

Vázquez-Herrero, Jorge; Negreira-Rey, Marí­a-Cruz; Rodrí­guez-Vázquez, Ana-Isabel (2021). "Intersections between TikTok and TV: Channels and programmes thinking outside the box". Journalism and media, v. 2, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia2010001

Vijay, Darsana; Gekker, Alex (2021). "Playing politics: How Sabarimala played out on TikTok". American behavioral scientist, v. 65, n. 5, pp. 712-734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221989769

Vizcaí­no-Verdú, Arantxa; Abidin, Crystal (2022). "Music challenge memes on TikTok: Understanding in-group storytelling videos". International journal of communication, v. 16, pp. 883-908. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18141/3680

Wang, Jiahao; Wang, Yunhong; Weng, Nina; Chai, Tianrui; Li, Annan; Zhang, Faxi; Yu, Sansi (2022). "Will you ever become popular? Learning to predict virality of dance clips". ACM Transactions on multimedia computing, communications, and applications, v. 18, n. 2, art. 54. https://doi.org/10.1145/3477533

Wang, Yu-Huan; Gu, Tian-Jun; Wang, Shyang-Yuh (2019). "Causes and characteristics of short video platform internet community taking the TikTok short video application as an example". In: 2019 IEEE International conference on consumer electronics-Taiwan (ICCE-TW). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCE-TW46550.2019.8992021

Wang, Yunwen (2020). "Humor and camera view on mobile short-form video apps influence user experience and technology-adoption intent, an example of TikTok (DouYin)". Computers in human behavior, v. 110, 106373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106373

Yang, Shuai; Zhao, Yuzhen; Ma, Yifang (2019). "Analysis of the reasons and development of short video application: Taking Tik Tok as an example". In: 2019 9th International conference on information and social science (ICISS 2019), pp. 340-343. https://webofproceedings.org/proceedings_series/article/artId/10287.html

Zhao, Zhengwei (2021). "Analysis on the "˜Douyin (Tiktok) mania´ phenomenon based on recommendation algorithms". In: 2020 International conference on new energy technology and industrial development (NETID 2020). https://www.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123503029

Zulli, Diana; Zulli, David-James (2022). "Extending the internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on the TikTok platform". New media & society, v. 24, n. 8, pp. 1872-1890. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820983603

Published

2023-04-05

How to Cite

Estrada-Garcí­a, S., & Gamir-Rí­os, J. (2023). Soft news in original videos. Adaptation to TikTok of the main Spanish online media. Profesional De La información, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2023.mar.22