How TikTok Can Change Our News Outlets
TikTok is such an impactful platform that people use each and every day. Twitter used to be the ideal place where people spoke their truths and wrote out their opinions. Now, it has changed. TikTok is a platform that allows people to take a video of themselves and say what their opinion is about a situation if they have one. For example, during the Black Lives Matter movement, people took to Twitter and TikTok to voice their concerns and explain the societal problems that were happening. I know that I saw the incident on TikTok before I saw it on the news. Our generation today looks more towards social media, whether it is true or not, for information around the world versus turning on the news channel after work.
When I was younger, I would come home from school and my mom would have the 4:00 news on. Now, we all just check our phones for the weather, big issues, and even what celebrities are up to. TikTok can be an outlet that can reach millions of people with just one video. It is so impactful when you see your peers and people your age fighting for something that matters and giving their opinions. It makes you want to stand up for something you believe in. This is in comparison to a news anchor that just states the problem with no feeling and just acknowledges what is happening. Seeing someone else, who you know or look up to, participating in a movement, or giving resources for you to look at is what makes a movement so inspiring. TikTok and TikTok influencers can be the change in our society and change the news channels for the future.
This is an interesting post! It’s amazing how much social media has changed our world, even in areas like news. The most updated news, events, and weather are available right at our fingertips. I think it’s great that you can access these things immediately, but it does concern me a bit that you may not always be receiving the most accurate information on platforms like TikTok.
This article was very insightful and many great points were made. We used to rely on the news heavily and that has shifted into social media throughout time. I loved your point on how news anchors were only supposed to state the news rather than voice an opinion, but influencers want to share their opinion and showcase why the topic is an issue and how it can be solved.
I think you’re completely right. There are so many videos on TikTok. You can find the most niche videos that you can relate to. I always see news on TikTok and people talking about things going on. Even with what is happening in Ukraine, there are a lot of videos explaining what all of it means and videos of how it is affecting the people there and it is very powerful. Seeing these types of videos can even motivate you to participate and support specific things.
I think that there are definitely benefits and downsides to this. For one, I feel like people do less fact-checking on their own and take everything they see at face value. This can be dangerous because it leads to biases in the way people think about certain events taking place around the world. But I do think it’s great that we can relay worldly information at such a quick pace whereas back 100 years ago we would be waiting for the newspaper to hear about something that might have started months ago.
Good post!
I definitely look to social media to tell me what’s going on in the world. A recent example was when the Russia Ukraine conflict was arising. I wasn’t sure what all happened for this to be a thing but a few people on tiktok really helped to simplify all of the craziness and explain what was going on and what could happen if it did happen. I really appreciate having a platform that can allow for that to happen.
Before reading this post I never truly realized how impactful social media outlets were in providing us with breaking news stories. I deleted social media a few months ago, and I don’t really watch the news, and I’m starting to feel somewhat out of the loop. For example, at work my coworkers will be talking about a current event or breaking news and that will be the first time I am hearing about it. It just shows how effective social media is at keeping people updated with news.