News flash! Nyheter i nya digitala format : En studie av traditionell nyhetsvärdering på TikTok

Sammanfattning: Only a fraction of events make it into Swedish news media. Previous theories on news values and selection agree on the news factors that enhance news value but new digital formats might be putting the relevance for these news values up for discussion. Younger generations primarily consume news through social media and curate their own personalized news feeds and if journalists don’t adjust their news production after this new climate we might look into democratic consequences for society in general and young people in particular. This study explores the relevance of traditional news factors for news on TikTok. Based on a summary of previous research on news value, ten news factors are proposed for studying news in new digital formats. These ten factors are the main part of the theoretical framework of this study. The study aims to investigate the news supply on TikTok and examine the correlation between news factors and news dissemination. 171 TikTok videos from five Swedish nationwide news channels with TikTok accounts were randomly selected. These videos were coded based on views, shares, and the ten news factors. Regression analysis and a correlation matrix were conducted. The study finds that news factors are present on TikTok, but few correlations exist between these factors and dissemination. Notably, views correlate with geographical proximity and surprising elements. This questions the relevance of traditional news values for user interest on TikTok and questions the role of journalists in the future. Future research could explore the news supply on TikTok based on user feeds instead of traditional news values, given that young people are influenced by their personalized feeds.