Nyheter på Tiktok – ord och inga visor. En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av nyhetsurvalet och engagemanget på Aftonbladet och Expressens tiktokkonton

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine how the distribution between different topics emerge in news reporting, the topics that generate most user engagement and possible explanations behind such engagement on the social media platform TikTok. To address the research questions, a quantitative content analysis has been conducted on 663 videos from the TikTok accounts of the largest newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet and Expressen. The videos included in the dataset were published between January 1 and June 30, 2024. The theoretical framework applied in this study is based on the theory of news values and news selection. This framework was chosen to refine the focus of the study and provide a deeper perspective on the topic. The theoretical framework has enabled us to analyze and understand what impact news values have on journalistic content. Additionally, the theory has contributed to an understanding that other factors affect what kinds of news content Aftonbladet and Expressen decide to publish on TikTok. The findings of this study reveals that the topics “crime” and “entertainment” dominate the TikTok accounts of the analyzed newspapers. Furthermore, hard news generates higher user engagement in terms of shares, likes and comments. This study also indicates that negative news tends to engage users more than positive news. Videos where users are encouraged to interact are more likely to generate a higher number of comments, while videos longer than 45 seconds tend to receive fewer shares, likes and comments. Finally, this study demonstrates that videos featuring elite people or celebrities result in less interactions.