Information Analysis of the TikTok Platform of “Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper” ()
1. Introduction
The research on TikTok is a research problem of the practice of platforms. This is explained by a conceptualization [1] that considers three different vectors: infrastructure, governance, and practice in analyzing the expression of institutional and cultural platforming processes. In cyberspace today, platform competition is intensifying. The list of the ten most valuable brands, which includes Tencent, Alibaba, and 8 US companies, includes only American and Chinese platform companies [2].
Leading platforms in China have created their own “community” and “market”. To that extent, it means that platform society can take many different forms [3]. One such platform is TikTok. On the other hand, electronic information communication is full of opportunities to platform the user-market, or society [2].
China’s society has an authoritarian political system and the Internet is tightly controlled, and platforms are creating surveillance systems to register and track people. However, it cannot be denied that these areas of social networks serve as channels of free and open communication of information. Moreover, it should be remembered that Chinese platforms are platformed with national distinctions. It has strict controls, but it is easy to use by external users. Our idea is confirmed by Herold and de Seta’s [4] astute observation that “China’s Internet is huge, diverse, and different from the Internet.” TikTok is one such platform.
Recently, TikTok has been studied with great interest by researchers at the national level.
As of October 2023, the Chinese CNKI (中国知网) network has a total of 18,340 results or articles when searching for the keyword “TikTok”, 11,997 of which are academic articles, 4089 are master’s and doctoral research papers, and 161 are academic conference presentations. 2093 were newspaper articles.
Generally speaking, research on “TikTok” has been conducted in three areas.
First, some studies examine the transmission features, methods, reasons for popularity, and prospects for TikTok by analyzing the audio-visual text of short videos. It should be noted that Chen Huai Ji (陈怀志) uses the 5 W theory to analyze the information subject, information content, information medium, information object, and information effect of short music videos on the TikTok platform, and the information method (strategy) of short music videos. summarized [5]. Also, Yu Sun Ming (于松明) and Shen Jia Shu (沈佳姝) deeply analyzed the development status of TikTok and considered how to improve the product as an important issue for TikTok [6].
Second, there are studies investigating TikTok’s marketing, profitability model, and business value. For example, Liu Xia (刘夏) and Li Xiao Ye (李晓晔) have analyzed and proposed related to product placement, celebrity theory, and online and offline advertising ([7], pp. 212-213). Zhao Xing Chi (赵心棋) analyzed the current efficiency situation and profit model of TikTok based on five points: profit point, profit source, profit object, profit driver, and profit barrier, and made corresponding suggestions for improvement ([8], pp. 72-73). Zhou Shiyi (周诗怡) and Ying Fei (殷菲) fully used the related theories of fan economics to analyze the TikTok business model and identify the success elements of its business model ([9], pp. 19-22).
Third, to analyze the important influence and role of TikTok in Journalism. For example, Ren Ji Xiang (任志祥)and Xiao Ping Ning (肖苹宁) analyzed the characteristics of expressions on the TikTok platform of “People’s Daily” and found that emotional expressions are often used ([10], pp. 1-7). Shen Li Hong (沈丽红) used popular short videos from the library’s TikTok platform as a research object to investigate how to use short videos to increase the influence of libraries ([11], pp. 75-82). Wang Yun An (王勇安) and Yang Jun Yang (杨忠杨) using a network ethnographic research method, analyzed the results of specific information on the construction of urban images in short mobile phone videos ([12], p. 4).
However, among these studies, there are quite a few studies on the TikTok network platform of newspapers, which is a traditional publication, but there is no study on how the content of newspaper information is transmitted, and how it is a channel for information communication.
Social Media analytics provides a better representation of social media usage in terms of their actions, interactions, and content on social media platforms [13].
By conducting qualitative research on the content of Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper’s TikTok network, we aimed to confirm that this short video recording platform is a form of disseminator of newspaper content in a multi-character environment, or a form of identification trend, as well as an optimal outlet or communication channel for newspapers to reach their users through social networks.
In terms of its purpose, TikTok is an electronic platform that is suitable for the tendency of newspapers to assimilate/merge among traditional publications, but it is necessary to clarify the difficulties and inconsistencies in the transmission of newspaper information in terms of content. It is hypothesized that the reason for this inconsistency is that the content of the newspaper contradicts the information transmission feature of TikTok, which is in the form of “short videos”. However, since the Internet has the potential to transform information processing into a multi-character environment, it is important to look for opportunities to use this platform effectively.
To prove this hypothesis, the following questions (RQs) are addressed.
RQ1: Can TikTok serve as an electronic information communication channel for CSOs?
RQ2: Is the transmitted content consistent with the TikTok form of electronic information, particularly short video transmissions?
RQ3: Is the TikTok platform an indication of the importance of the influence of new media on the convergence trend of newspapers?
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Materials
In our study, we chose the TikTok platform of “Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper” and conducted a content analysis of 286 videos broadcast on this platform from January 2022 to October 2023. The sample of the study or N = 286 records is the original population of the study. Let’s take a look at the three main concepts that will be explored.
2.1.1. About Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper
“Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper” (hereafter referred to as IMDN) is a newspaper of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee, which was signed by Mao Zedong himself, and the first regional newspaper established by the Central People’s Unity Party in the country of minority ethnic groups. It’s a newspaper. Over the past 70 years since its publication on January 1, 1948, IMDN has “become a link and a bridge between the Central State Unity Party and the people of Inner Mongolia, and has become a good teacher and a good friend in the work and life of the Mongolian people.” [14].
IMDN started its first publication in Ulaan City on January 1, 1948, and from November 1953 to March 1953, it merged with “Su Yuan’s Daily Newspaper” and brought the People’s Day newspaper to a new stage of development. The Mongolian edition of “Inner Mongolian Daily Newspaper” is one of the first publications of the Middle Kingdom, and it will be a regional party newspaper published by a minority nation in its literacy [15]. It is also the first daily newspaper in the history of the Mongolian nation of the Middle Kingdom to be published in written form. During the time of change and discovery, the Mongolian editorial department of the Inner Mongolia Daily newspaper reflects the reality of new events, new achievements, new experiences, new contributions of the people, and new ideals in the midst of the transformation of the farming country.
2.1.2. About TikTok Platform
The TikTok platform of the Mongolian language editorial department of the Inner Mongolian Daily newspaper is a tool for distributing electronic information content of the newspaper.
TikTok is a short music video social app launched in 2016 by Toutiao (头条). Initially focused on short video content, it could create, publish, and share short videos in real-time. According to TikTok’s official user data published on June 12, 2018, TikTok has surpassed 150 million domestic daily active users and 300 million monthly active users. Thus, “Until April 20, 2018, TikTok remains at the top of the App Store’s free list” ([16], p. 113).
Consequently, TikTok is not just a video creation tool or a video playback software but aims to create a social network through short videos. Update each time, TikTok has strengthened its social function to a certain extent and highlighted its capabilities with the characteristics of a social network. With the increase in the number of users, TikTok has entered a period of rapid development. During this period, there were some problems such as content quality problems and copyright problems, but it has continued to develop and reach today. However, in April 2018, TikTok made adjustments and temporarily blocked comments and live broadcasts. After the revision, TikTok focused more on the combination of technology and human effort, resulting in tight control over short video content.
In January 2019, TikTok creators were allowed to include merchandise links in their videos [17].
In terms of working principle, TikTok is the easiest to use. The mobile app allows users to create short videos, usually with background music, and tools to speed up, slow down, or edit the video with filters [18]. They can also add their songs to the background music. Before uploading the finished video to share with others on TikTok and other social platforms, you can record a 15-second video with adjustable speed [18]. Content is controlled by TikTok’s AI based on user likes, interactions, and searches. It differs from other social networks’ algorithms in that it bases such content on the user’s relationships with other users and what they have liked and interacted with [19].
Users have the option to interact with any other user or only their “friends” via comments, messages, “chat” or “duet” videos. TikTok is one of the platforms where you can earn money. In May 2022, TikTok announced the “TikTok Pulse” ad revenue-sharing program. It covers the “top 4%” of all videos on TikTok, and only creators with over 100,000 followers can use the program [20].
2.1.3. About Inner Mongolia Daily TikTok Platform
The Inner Mongolia Daily TikTok platform was first published on August 17, 2018, with the title “A feast of prairie culture, law and order in the northern border, a special performance of the statutory red branch of the holiday” was published for the first time. Since then, 1181 short videos have been published, with 4.995.000 views and 239.000 users.
2.2. Methodology
286 videos from January 5, 2022, to October 8, 2023, were randomly selected from 1181 short videos on the TikTok platform of the Mongolian language editing department, and some content research was done on them. It is considered that the sample record A = 286 is 24.2 percent of N = 1181, which is the original population of the study and can be a complete representative of the original population or a sufficient sample.
Then, the content analysis method was used to research the content of the sampled/A = 286/records. In doing so, content analysis was done using 5 types of encoders: “Time or size of recording, topic, music, source, type of content, writing of title”. I have double-coded and tabulated the coders with special values related to the coders. Each coder went through each text and coded the relevant meaning and information [21].
Graphs representing the results of content analysis were created and the results of each code were presented.
3. Results
As the competition between platforms in the electronic environment intensifies, the process of cooperation and integration with those platforms has also intensified for information and advertising organizations. Unless we partner with the leading platforms in terms of e-communications in the virtual environment, we immediately face the risk of falling behind the competition. In general, the leading platforms of not only the nation but also the entire network are driving electronic communication. TikTok is one such platform. Depending on the direction of our research, TikTok is one of the areas of fusion or assimilation with traditional media, and the user market is one of the main areas. Inner Mongolia Daily newspaper or (“People’s Daily” entered Tik Tok in September 2018, the newspaper’s Tik Tok platform has grown rapidly and topped the monthly list of media Tik Tok dances many times) ([10], pp. 1-7) (Ren Ji Xiang, 2021, pp. 1-7). Therefore, it can be said that TikTok has a positive effect on the transformation and renewal of traditional media.
However, the digitalization of paper newspapers on the Internet and the process of disseminating information in a multi-character environment is not perfect. This is shown by the following results of our research.
Analyzing the results of the content analysis, the following picture can be observed. See Table 1.
3.1. Posting Time
The default posting time for the TikTok platform is 15 seconds. However, IMDN is using the opportunity to enter a longer video. Summarizing the recording time in minutes, the following results were obtained for A = 286 recordings.
From Figure 1, the video recordings of the TikTok platform of IMDN were dominated by videos with durations within 1' and over 2'.
Table 1. Content analysis results of IMDN’s TikTok platform.
Code |
Recording time |
Topic |
Speech, sound |
Source |
Title,
Expression |
Meaning |
Within 1 minute |
1-2 minutes |
More than 2 minutes |
Politics, times |
Society, economy |
Culture, art |
Advertisements, greetings |
Speech |
Ambient sounds |
Music |
Source clear or not |
Own work or not |
Post captions |
Titles |
Subtitles |
Clear |
Unclear |
Editorial work |
Other sources work |
Total 286 records |
119 |
50 |
117 |
119 |
62 |
71 |
7 |
201 |
25 |
179 |
171 |
115 |
137 |
149 |
286 |
82 |
67 |
Let’s consider these results by each code.
Figure 1. Duration of recordings.
However, there were quite a few videos that were longer than 2' and videos that were longer than 3'. It is necessary to be able to adjust the time and content harmony because the length and shortness of the recording time will directly affect the interest and patience of TikTok viewers. However, there are only 16 8' - 23' videos in the selected videos, which are very different from the standard features of short videos on the TikTok platform.
According to TikTok’s official rules, regular users can upload videos up to 1', while certified users (with official numbers from movies, TV stars, and organizations) can upload videos up to 3'. To transfer videos longer than that, it is necessary to use the videos available on your phone’s album.
On July 5, 2019, a reporter named “Little Pumpkin, Big Data” (小葫芦大天生) of China’s NetEase News (NetEase News) reported, “Experiencing the unique appeal of TikTok through data analysis, users like to post 15-second short videos the most.” in the article, 59.53% of users create and publish a short 10"-15" video. However, most of the works with high performance in terms of the number of forwarded, liked, and commented by the recipients are 30" - 60" videos.
In the age of short videos, people have become accustomed to receiving information in fragments (新新碎石化). In other words, people stopped taking time to read the entire long-term information and focused on knowing the main meaning of the information in a short period of time. Among the 286 posts on the IMDN tik tok platform, the post with the most likes was posted on January 22, 2023, by 2'11" long, with the title “It’s here, it’s here, the stars wish you a Chinese New Year”, It is a video of greetings of the lunar month.
The content of this recording is short, even though it is more than 2', and the speaking time of the stars or everyone in the recording is 1" - 2". This is consistent with the recipients’ TikTok usage habits. This means that the shorter the TikTok video, the better it is, but the fractional nature of the content is very important. If the same thing is broken for a long time, the interest of the recipient will be lost. But it has been observed that people like it when many people talk about one thing in a short time, or when one person talks briefly about many things.
3.2. Classification of Topics
Although there were many types of topics as the second code of content analysis, we proposed to classify them into 4 general topics and coded them meaningfully. See Figure 2.
Figure 2. Topic classification.
If you look at this, there are B = 119 political and current videos in the TikTok platform of IMDN, so the information is mostly domestic and local information of the country. It is inextricably linked to the policy of newspaper articles, a state publication, it can be seen that it is related to the characteristics of instant media that reflect the times.
There are also B = 72 videos on social and economic topics, including a = 48 social news videos, a = 4 business news videos, and a = 20 social care news videos.
B = 71 videos on the subject of art and culture including a = 48 art and festival videos and a = 23 culture and education videos. It was also emphasized that 7 well-known people’s videos were included in this topic within the cultural topic.
One particular topic was B = 7 ads and posts with greetings.
Comparing the TikTok platform of IMDN with the TikTok platform of China Daily, it was observed that the scope of the content is wide, but it is not well organized. From this, it can be concluded that the systematization of the Inner Mongolian subject content is poor and unclear. It has been observed that the TikTok platform of the Chinese daily newspaper has matured by conveying important information about domestic and foreign politics, the economy, and people’s lives. On the other hand, the TikTok platform of IMDN has a wide range of content, such as political information, meetings, folk life, culture, trade, festivals, commemorative day videos, advertisements, etc. Therefore, the role of “gatekeeper” was missing. As a result, most of the information is meaningless and ineffective.
3.3. Types of Speech and Sound
Of course, the main elements of video recording are speech, sound, and music. It is a key informational element that attracts the attention of the audience. See Figure 3.
According to Figure 3, B = 201 records, which are one of the main sets of the tik tok platform of IMDN, have human speech, which accounts for 70% of all records or the sample set. From here, it can be seen that the video focuses on talking rather than action. Then, the recording with ambient noise was B = 25, which accounted for 9% of all recordings. Ambient sounds to highlight the action played a role in the content to some extent.
But B = 179 records use music as the main element, and it accounts for 63% of the selected set. A = 64 recordings used a single melody (22% of all recordings), and in the rest of the recordings, a tone of interest and attention was used in the background of the person’s speech.
Figure 3. Type of noise.
3.4. Sources
We have analyzed the source of the TikTok information of IMDN in terms of clarity and the principle of determining the source. Although TikTok is a social network, as an official news organization, it is necessary to comply with the requirement of clear information sources. In this sense, the following results were obtained when observing the clarity of the information source of the TikTok platform. See Figure 4.
The source of the news is an important factor in confirming the truthfulness of the information. Among the selected A = 286 records, the source of B = 171 records are clear, accounting for 60% of all records. However, the source of B = 115 records is unclear and accounted for 40% of all records.
59 records require attribution within records whose source is not clear. For example, in the video posted on March 30, 2022, with the title “A cute lamb finds its mother”, only the words “Find its mother” were nailed on the screen, and there was no description of who prepared it throughout the video. All recordings are 13” long.
Also, in the video titled “One-Day Nucleic Acid Investigation of Big White” published on February 28, 2022, a one-day vlog of a person doing nuclear acid was published. Because the source of the Vlog is not identified, the recipient cannot understand the source. It is necessary to pay attention to such shortcomings.
In addition, the location and time displayed by the source of the information has been filtered. The a = 15 record data source was nailed to the end of the record and the view time was only 1 second. If we compare this with the display of the Tik Tok source of “China Daily”, the shortcomings are observed. The TikTok platform of “China Daily” nailed its news source on the screen from the beginning to the end of the video. It’s also useful for viewers deciding whether or not to watch a video based on their data source. Appropriate use of information sources affects the accuracy of information. See Figure 5.
“Own work” was analyzed in the source research. 149 out of 286 videos on IMDN TikTok platform were transferred from others. However, there were 137 editorial works, which accounted for 48% of all posts. It can be seen from this that IMDN’s TikTok platform lacks editorial work and transmits other sources’ works. See Figure 6.
There were very few videos of reporters in their works. It was also a work transferred from We Chat and Hüleg application of IMDN. There are no videos made specifically for TikTok platforms.
Figure 4. Whether the source of the information is clear.
Figure 5. Comparison of information sources.
Figure 6. Proportion of own works.
3.5. Presentation of Titles
Depending on the format of presentation of short video news, the title may be presented as separate text, usually in combination with the cover image of the video, or without a bottom image. Based on the screen size of the mobile phone, different fonts, font sizes, colors, animation effects, animations, and other tools can be used more diversified to create a strong visual impact. Titles are often associated with video images to create a movie poster-like effect. Additionally, ease of understanding is an important goal for visualizing short video news headlines. Because clarity saves users time and money. See Figure 7.
All of the video titles of the TikTok platform of IMDN have nailed the post title. It can be seen that it is preferred to display the title of the information in the form of a post. Also, 82 of the videos have a screen title /title/, which is 29% of all videos. There were 67 videos with subtitles, accounting for 23% of all videos.
The videos on the TikTok platform of the China Daily News Paper use three forms of screen titles, subtitles, and posts together. See Figure 8.
In addition to the above 5 codes, we have analyzed record access. The main aim was to determine the availability and access of information on the TikTok platform of OMÜS and evaluate how effectively the content was delivered.
3.6. Access
The figure shows the relationship (interactivity) of the TikTok recipients of the IMDN. See Figure 9.
According to the graph, the relationship (interactive) of the recipients of the selected A = 286 videos have the likes: a = 83 with more than 100 likes, and the number of likes for the other a = 203 videos is less than 100 is There are a = 2 posts with more than 5000 likes in it, and they are respectively posted on January 22, 2023, “It’s here, it’s here. The video will be titled” Stars greet you during the Lunar New Year. The video has 5259 likes. The other was a 16'50" Father’s Day report titled “Father’s Love is Sometimes a Look,” posted on June 18, 2022. Singer A. Bayar was covered in the video, and the number of likes was 5144.
Comment status: Posts with more than 100 comments have a = 7. Among them, the most was the 1'8" song entitled “Do you like to sing with me” published on May 7, 2022-the song “Find my mother’s rest” sung by singer Oyunbileg on Mother’s Day.
Figure 7. The state of nailing the title.
Figure 8. Screen title.
Figure 9. Access to the TikTok platform of IMDN.
Download and save status: More than 100 saved records have a = 13. The most pinned piece is a 16'50" Father’s Day video clip titled “Father’s Love Is Only One Look” posted on June 18, 2022. Its saved number reached 653.
Share Status: More than 100 shared posts have a = 28. The most shared post was “A father’s love is sometimes just a glance” posted on June 18, 2022. Its share reached 1633.
This research is related to the practice of the TikTok platform, which is considered from the point of view of being an electronic transition field of traditional tools-an information communication channel. However, in-depth content research on the issue of preparing and distributing information content that is unique to the TikTok platform is innovative and the beginning of researchers’ attention to this type of research in the future.
4. Conclusions and Discussion
The TikTok platform of the Mongolian publishing house of IMDN not only distributes information to its users but also serves as a communication channel—a bridge to attract them to the newspaper. However, newspaper information is reworked and given the importance of communicating information in accordance with the short video features of the TikTok platform. Therefore, IMDN defined that the TikTok platform is being used as an information and communication tool.
The TikTok information of IMDN maintains the following characteristics.
-Transmitting multimedia information of short videos adapted to the format of short videos, which is the main form of the TikTok network. However, not only 1', but 2' - 3' and even longer videos are included without being bound by the 15" requirement. This indicated that TikTok is using the ability to upload up to 3' videos of the organization/newsroom/as a technology to process and enter information for electronic newspapers.
-In terms of subject category, it was seen that the purpose of spreading information is to include the main topics of a wide range of newspapers/politics, society, economy, culture, and advertising/. However, the disorganized presentation of information without subject classification indicated the lack of maturity of information and communication in this channel. Due to this, it was considered necessary to create a technology and programming solution to classify and systematize information in TikTok.
-Short video recording makes newspaper information accessible to the recipient in the form of multimedia information in a multi-character environment. In particular, the combination of informational elements such as human speech, ambient sounds, and music with moving images is proof that the traditional medium of newspapers is being updated with the same tendency.
-Violating the basic principle of TikTok’s short videos, it was observed that they were able to attract viewers by preparing videos with a duration of more than 3' with intensive narration, showing one thing in multiple characters and many things in one character.
-However, less than half of the videos on the TikTok platform of ОМУС are their creations, and the majority of the rest are the works of others, and there are a lot of unknown sources in them, which shows that editorial processing is poor. The fact that he transferred his works to another platform, which he had prepared, increased the lack of reason. Therefore, there is little opportunity to define the so-called own work made for TikTok.
-Titles of posts in TikTok have been nailed in the innovative form of posts and the traditional form of titles and subtitles.
This is a meaningful piece of information to attract your audience. In addition to these, the content of the information of IMDN is not rich, but the sample of random recordings, the recording standard is sometimes too long/there are many uninteresting videos longer than 5', the source is not guaranteed, and there are problems with the lack of special own works, which indicates that the relationship has not yet matured. However, the high reach indicates that it is a channel with high demand and a promising communication tool.
Finally, to conclude, IMDN is taking steps to attract users in the online environment by initiating the TikTok platform, but it has not yet reached the perfect technological solution to become an information and communication channel. The TikTok platform of IMDN is one of the proofs of the convergence of new media and newspapers are now turning to the “short video” type of multimedia information production.
This is just the beginning of a new data analysis study on the newspaper’s TikTok platform. In this way, by deepening the content research on the issue of preparing and distributing information content that matches the characteristics of the TikTok platform, it is innovative and the beginning of researchers’ attention to this type of research.
Acknowledgements
The authors are deeply grateful to reviewers for comments and suggestions.