Let’s Give Them Something to TikTok About
Have you ever heard of a video app that’s a popular medium of agenda-setting for younger generations? No, you say? Well, let’s TikTok about it. If you don’t know by now, TikTok is a mobile app created by Chinese technology company ByteDance that functions as a video social networking site with nearly 800 million active users. Its popularity paired with a highly engaged audience makes for a modern twist on agenda-setting.
Agenda-setting theory can be defined as the press being “successful in telling its readers what to think about.” Says political scientist Bernard Cohen. Traditionally, it pertains to news coverage of important issues. But for TikTok, agenda setting can be mostly seen in three categories: determining popular trends or challenges, pertinent social issues, and political topics. This is based on personal observation and use.
One way that agenda-setting manifests on the app is through one of its most coveted features; the algorithm. It’s truly designed “for you”, as is entitled the main page, with content that never runs out based on videos a user has interacted with or watched. This is how the system can present content to a user to make it seem more important or pertinent than it actually is. Unlike Instagram or Twitter, which is solely based on followers and suggestions, TikTok feeds the user not necessarily with what they want to see but what they need to see. For instance, I was recently shown a video by @victoriahammett on my “For You Page” informing me about leaked audio of President Trump apparently playing down the severity of the Coronavirus in March 2020. If it wasn’t for the algorithm determining the importance of this video, I wouldn’t have been made aware of it.
Even though most videos can be categorized as comedy or entertainment, there seems to be an increase in content directed to current social and political events that users might not be aware of or are learning more about. It’s important to note that the majority of people on the app are between the ages 10–19 (32.5%) with the second largest group between the ages 20–29 (29.5%) who are categorized as Gen Z and Gen Y respectively. Both generations heavily rely on social media as a way to stay informed. Gen Z, however, is 25% more likely to get their news from TikTok than Gen Y. Also, they prefer to gather information via videos than text. This is an important factor in assuming that TikTok as a medium has the power to determine for its more impressionable users what’s important.
Another defining generational trait of Gen Z is that they are more likely than other age groups to want an activist government and to realize the social and racial injustices in America. Accordingly, the algorithm has echoed and played to these traits among younger users in the US, myself included. With events such as mass U.S. protests against racial injustice and police brutality and an election year, Gen Z users use TikTok to not only inform themselves, but to form and share their opinions as well to set agendas for other users.
Although agenda-setting theory is normally associated with the press telling its viewers or readers what to think about, the medium of TikTok is successful in showing its members what is important in the world even if their world has a different algorithmic code than others. In a recent study called “It’s Time to TikTok”, the researchers used Uses and Gratifications theory and empirical data to uncover Gen Zs main motivations of participating in video challenges. One of the six reasons was to seek information, more specifically, to see what’s trending and what’s happening globally. Many participants stated that “learning something” was a secondary motivating factor whether that be undertaking a dancing challenge or another trend.
Despite the addictiveness of fun challenges and infinitely engaging content, TikTok has become a reliable source of information for younger generations with short and easy to view videos to keep people engaged and informed. How reliable the information, however, is questionable as most content is generated by users for users and not news professionals to regular audience members. This popular app has given voices to the common and uplifted issues through its algorithm in a way that sets agendas as to what’s important in the world. What will be deemed as ‘important’ next will be determined by what you, a TikTok member, think is imperative.
