New research reveals best practices for newsrooms on TikTok
Learn how to create successful, platform-specific content
TikTok has exploded as a source of news for young people, and its rise offers key insights for news organizations looking to adapt to changing audience habits. New research from Kaia Tran, MA ’25, highlights how to create news content that resonates with TikTok users.
More than half of TikTok users say they get their news on the platform, according to Pew Research, but only 14% follow the accounts of journalists or news organizations. With influencers and platforms playing an increasingly influential role in news consumption, news organizations have an opportunity to do more to harness TikTok’s potential.
Tran’s white paper, available here, breaks down insights from TikTok producers at 11 news organizations from metro desks to national.
“This is basically a guidebook for news organizations who want to really get into TikTok,” Tran said. The guide provides strategies for story selection, engagement, and navigating the quirks of the platform’s guidelines and trend-driven, video-centric culture.
Key insights and strategies include:
- Using TikTok’s in-app tools to create content natively rather than simply re-purposing content. Audiences take notice and respond negatively to highly polished content they consider inauthentic to the platform.
- Finding which coverage resonates on TikTok.
- Engaging with TikTok trends to promote relevant news stories or put a fun, human face on the newsroom.
- Story structures and techniques that mesh with the short-form video format, such as:
- Loop-and-flashback narratives that begin with dynamic moments before providing context.
- Character-driven explanations using multiple personas to role-play different perspectives.
- On-location filming.
Which metrics to use to measure success.
Crucially, Tran finds that unlike Facebook’s push to encourage short-form news video content beginning in 2016 — backed by creative and ultimately inaccurate interpretations of data — the rise of news videos on TikTok is a very real reflection of audience preferences shifting toward video-heavy platforms.
The research was conducted under the guidance of Joy Jenkins, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and co-author of the U.S. section of this year’s Reuters Digital News Report, which charts the continued rise of influencers and social media in the news ecosystem.
Jenkins pointed to another important takeaway: News organizations who successfully use TikTok are not losing their identities by adapting their content to TikTok’s casual and highly visual culture. In fact, the opposite is true.
“Although there is this adjustment to speaking the language of the platform, there is also a sense that news organizations are trying to make it their own,” Jenkins said. “They’re maintaining their brands while appealing to new audiences, and that’s so important for legacy outlets who want to reach people who are going to continue to get their news this way.”
Cite this article
Fitzgerald, Austin (2026, April 6). New research reveals best practices for newsrooms on TikTok. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/new-research-reveals-best-practices-for-newsrooms-on-tiktok/