Journalism in the age of TikTok
The profession needs to take TikTok seriously, once we get over how much we hate it.
Add BT as a preferred source
“I DON’T know what to do with this platform,” laments a senior editor with The Business Times (BT), as some of us discuss TikTok. “The boomers are on it for silly entertainment. Gen X, like my husband, uses it to forage for food ideas. And my 14-year-old says all I have to do is get Uncle Raymond to visit the newsroom?!”
Uncle Raymond is a 60-year-old TikTok dance sensation; and with 2.4 million ‘likes’ on his videos to date, he’s giving news providers a run for their money in connecting with Singapore’s young audiences.
TikTok is relatively new, but has shaken up the media world. Driving its success is the use of short-form, vertical video; and an uncanny algorithm, that serves users content they don’t even know they want – based on their actual browsing behaviours, and not the creators they follow.
TRENDING NOW
CSE Global independent director quits after clashes with chairman Eugene Lai over board refresh
What’s wrong with Orchard Road? Experts weigh in on the street’s cachet and its future
‘I felt like dying’: Thai Singha beer scion speaks up after disclosure of alleged sexual abuse
Rare brutalist Singapore house opens to the public before changing hands
