The spread of misinformation is something most of us have dealt with, especially as our parents and other relatives tend to share the “latest news” about one thing or the other that they assume must be true just because it has been forwarded many times on WhatsApp. But while we battle our personal battles with WhatsApp forwards and fake news, now TikTok may be claiming a spot as the latest news source.
UK regulator Ofcom has found that TikTok’s reach for news has increased from 1% in 2020 to 7% this year. Half the user base for news on TikTok belongs to the 16-24 age group.
Ofcom states that people who use TikTok for news claim to get around a quarter of it from news organisations on the platform. “This likely includes content from broadcasters they follow such as BBC, ITV, and Sky News, which have all launched TikTok channels for news.”
In a report titled, “News Consumption in the UK: 2022”, Ofcom shared that despite the increased use of TikTok for news, the reach of TV and internet platforms remains steady. The reach of TV is 74% and the reach of the internet is 66%. However, a slight drop of 4% was seen since 2018, with the reach of radio found to be 40% this year.
According to Ofcom, different age groups consume news differently. “Younger age groups are much more likely to use the internet and social media for news, whereas their older counterparts favour print, radio, and TV.”
In terms of print and online newspapers, reach in 2022 was 38% in the UK, a slight drop from 2020’s 47%. Ofcom shared that this drop, which is in print as the reach of online newspapers remains steady, could have been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Attitudes towards news generally remain consistent with 2020 (across measures such as quality, accuracy, trustworthiness, and impartiality) for TV, radio, social media, newspapers, and online, with TV performing strongest, and social media performing least well,” Ofcom states.
However, they add that social media is overtaking traditional channels for news among teens, with Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube now the top three most used sources for news among this age group.
Ofcom’s data looks specifically at the UK, and The Verge quotes Ofcom Group Director for Strategy and Research Yih-Choung Teh as saying: “Teenagers today are increasingly unlikely to pick up a newspaper or tune into TV news, instead, preferring to keep up-to-date by scrolling through their social feeds.”
Teh adds: “And while youngsters find news on social media to be less reliable, they rate these services more highly for serving up a range of opinions on the day’s topical stories.”
The Verge says that this may be a worrying trend for some, given TikTok’s reputation as a source of disinformation, explaining: “Recent analysis of news related to the Ukraine-Russia war, for example, found that TikTok was a prime vector for spreading ‘false narratives’ about the conflict.”
However, in an article published in The Guardian, “TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media” author Chris Stokel-Walker explained that TikTok is not the enemy of journalism, but a new way of reaching people.
“Enhanced by the pandemic and its impact on remote work, apps like TikTok and Instagram have become the digital equivalent of the watercooler. It’s where we talk about Love Island, the latest soaps, the dysfunction in our government and what’s going on in the world,” Stokel-Walker wrote.
This is true of Sri Lanka as well, since information on what is happening in the country can be accessed easily via TikTok as well as other social media apps. With regard to the people’s protests and the “aragalaya” for instance, before mainstream media has the opportunity to report on the latest developments, live footage and the latest updates are shared on social media.
When consuming reports on these incidents through broadcast or print media, one will see that most footage and information comes from social media. With the country’s fuel crisis, for instance, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera keeps people updated via his official Twitter account, and these posts are then picked up by reporters. When Current-President Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed Prime Minister under Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency, his frank tweets and regular addresses to the nation filled the silence maintained by the previous leader with regard to the worsening situation in the country. Such content is then shared with sections of the populations who do not have access to the internet via mainstream media.
Stokel-Walker goes on to write that, prior to Ofcom’s report, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report in June identified TikTok as the fastest-growing source of news. “But rather than seeing it as a threat, old media bods should see it as a natural evolution. News finds us in the best possible way, and always has. Whether it’s the switch from newspapers carrying (sometimes days) old news to TV bulletins that summed up a day in an evening, to the constant updates of 24-hour TV channels and social media updates, the way journalism has been presented has always been in flux,” the author explains.
He goes on to say that TikTok does things differently, from style and format to how videos are presented to users, compared to other tech platforms.
Applying this in the local context proves a bit challenging, since we don’t have much data on the use of TikTok or any other social media platforms in Sri Lanka, especially as a news source. However, looking at other social media and their use in reporting events as and when they happen, it can be assumed that TikTok will follow, and with it, one hopes, increased measures and fact-checking infrastructure to curb the spread of misinformation.
