TikTok is a newly established social media platform with a lot of active and young users. On the app all kinds of political and controversial subjects get discussed, but how these are received, shared and interacted with are not something that we know a lot about today. The purpose of the study is to see how the news of the american presidential election and the abortion debate are being framed on the social media platform TikTok, as well as seeing what types of subjects within these debates are getting the most attention. This study did a quantitative content analysis, examining 600 analysis units. These have been divided into two TikToks hashtags, called #Abortionban and #Election2020. With 300 videos per hashtag, these have been further divided into popular videos versus unpopular videos – 150 per each. The videos are mostly framed as negative or neutral for the most part on both the hashtags, but the abortionban hashtag is more critical and also more emotional than the Election2020 hashtag. As the Election2020 hashtag leaned in almost all instances towards being more neutral and emotional but not at all critical. Barely one third of the 300 videos in the Election2020 hashtag was critical, while the majority of the abortionban hashtag, marking 80 percent, was critical. This was the biggest difference between the two hashtags, as well as the Abortionban hashtag being much more emotional, but the difference there was not as noticable. The most prominent subjects discussed within the hashtags were the same both within the popular and the impopular videos, and had a lot in common. For example on the Abortionban hashtag the subjects prochoice and prolife were both very prominent in the popular and unpopular videos, as well as voting and humour for the Election2020 hashtag. Which shows that some subjects get discussed no matter the interaction they get from their audiences, and are often subjects that the general public has a lot of thoughts on, as well as for being discussed in other media.

Studien syftar till att undersöka vad fem identifierade trender på applikationen TikTok förmedlar samt vilken respons som trenderna bemöts med. Vidare syftar studien till att förstå och förklara det gemensamma flödet på TikTok. Studien undersöker även hur barn och ungdomar mellan 12-18 år upplever social interaktion genom TikTok, hur de beskriver användningen av applikationen samt eventuella risker och möjligheter. Studien tillämpar en kvalitativ metod genom en textanalys och intervjuer. Resultatet visar att trenderna består av innehåll som relaterar till verkligheten och även innehåll som användare återskapar. Responsen på trenderna är kommentarer om det som händer i mikrovideornas innehåll. Det framkommer även att TikToks gemensamma flöde och funktioner möjliggör stor spridning av innehåll och digitala beteenden. De unga respondenterna använder TikTok som underhållning, ett tidsfördriv och som ett socialt verktyg i vänskapsrelationer. Jargongen på TikTok ska vara ironisk enligt de unga respondenterna men samtidigt förekommer det hat och kränkningar. Slutligen kan innehåll på TikTok spridas viralt vilket utgör både möjligheter och risker. Opassande innehåll kan även vara en risk men samtidigt uppfattas TikTok som en arena för social interaktion.

Consumers had either positive or negative interpretations based on multiple factors. However, the factors we were able to spot were the following: 1. Content 2. Timing 3. Relevancy 4. The metaphors used and its simplicity. 5. Cultural values 6. The message of the ad and its validity. These 6 factors formed discussions in regards to the participant's interpretation of the ads and, in return, ended up with themes that we, as researchers, could identify as either positive or negative interpretations of the ads. Thus, through the observation of the connection between the overarching themes mentioned in 4.5, figure 8 was created to visualise the connection. For social media networks like Tiktok, people are more interested in marketing campaigns that are direct and informative. Further, consumers are attracted to colourful ads with humour, as it eases up the ad for the consumer and makes the ad feel less pushy. Consumers also preferred skippable ads over non-skippable ads as it gave them the chance to decide if the ad was in their interest or not.

Today, social media applications are used not only as a means to communicate but also as a means to exert power. In some cases, it even has gone so far that specific social media applications have been accused of constituting a threat against national security. This is the case with TikTok, today’s fastest-growing social media application in the world. TikTok is a video-sharing platform used by approximately 800 million individuals every month, developed and owned by a Chinese company named ByteDance Ltd.. The purpose of the following study is to explain how a seemingly innocent social media application like TikTok, used by individuals and owned by a private company, can constitute a threat against national security. This is performed by using the term "sharp power". The study concludes that TikTok can be used by the Chinese government to exert sharp power, enabling the state access to the global information environment.

Under coronapandemins år 2020 så fick en ny sociala medie-plattform många nya användare. Den applikationen heter TikTok. TikTok är en sociala medie-plattform där du som användare kan publicera, redigera likaså interagera med videos i alla dess storlekar och former. Det är bara kreativiteten som sätter stopp för ditt uttryck på plattformen. TikTok har en bred grupp med användare från olika åldersgrupper. En stor majoritet av de som använder TikTok är under 25 år – en grupp med människor som kan kategoriseras ihop som generation Z. Med nu över en miljard användare i flera olika åldrar, stora mängder av effekter, filter, trender, hashtags och låtar så är möjligheterna oändliga på TikTok. TikToks makt är något som är svårt att missa både för konkurrenter, andra företag, vänner runt omkring en och allmänheten. TikToks influenser kommer in på alltmer ställen i samhället. Konkurrenter tar inspiration av deras designspråk - likaså deras smarta funktioner. TikTok bestämmer desto mer över musikbranschen – både hur användare lyssnar på musik och hur musik produceras. TikTok tar upp alltmer tid hos varje TikTok-användare med deras hypnotiska feed och korta interaktiva videos. Uppsatsens syfte är att bidra med ny kunskap kring digitaliseringens påverkan på generation Zs musiklyssnande. I synnerlighet vilken vikt TikTok-videos har i detta.  Studien är genomförd med hjälp av en kvantitativ metod som har applicerats. Detta har skett i form av ett enkätformulär. Det som kom fram i resultatet var ett resultat som bekräftade hypotesen. Digitaliseringen har påverkat generation Zs musiklyssnande. Det har digitaliseringen gjort på många sätt, bland annat genom TikTok-videos. Generation Z blir matade med massvis av digitalt material och de släpper in den digitala världen mer i sina liv både medvetet och omedvetet. TikTok och digitaliseringen påverkar generation Zs musiklyssnande – och TikTok är en del av flera anledningar som spelar en stor del i det. Det argumenteras också att denna forskningsstudie ska ses som en början på ett nytt forskningskapitel. Det har tidigare inte funnits mycket forskning kring ämnet och för att dra en motiverad slutsats behövs mer forskning utöver den befintliga att göras.

Rekommendationsbaserade flöden har blivit en allt större del av dagens sociala medier för att öka användarnas tid på plattformarna. TikTok är en populär social medie-applikation där användare kan lägga upp korta videos och dela dessa med andra människor. Det som skiljer TikTok från många andra sociala medier är att dess huvudsakliga flöde främst baseras på rekommendationsbaserat innehåll, men även visa innehåll från konton som användaren följer. Det sekundära flödet är följarbaserat och visar endast innehåll från konton som användaren följer. Denna studie undersöker hur användarens skärmtid påverkas av att endast använda flödet med främst rekommendationsbaserat innehåll jämfört med flödet med följarbaserat innehåll. Vidare diskuteras även de fysiska och psykiska hälsoeffekter som hög skärmtid har på människor, såsom överdriven användning av appen. Resultatet visade att studiedeltagarnas skärmtid på TikTok ökade när de använde det rekommendationsbaserade flödet. Nästan alla studiedeltagare gillade detta flöde mer än det andra, vilket öppnade diskussionen för det följarbaserade flödets nödvändighet. Däremot var studiedeltagarnas totala skärmtid densamma, oavsett flöde, vilket syftade på att de använde andra appar för att fylla ut tiden. Detta leder frågan om användandet av specifika appar verkligen kan justeras för att ändra den totala skärmtiden, eller om man bör undersöka användandet av hela kategorier av appar. / Recommendation-based feeds have become an increasingly established feature of today's social media, in order to increase users' time on the platforms. TikTok is a popular social media application where users can upload short videos and share these with other people. What distinguishes TikTok from many other social media is that primary feed is mainly based on recommendation-based content, but can also show content from accounts that the user follows. The secondary feed is follower-based and only shows content from accounts that the user follows. This study examines how the user's screen time is affected by using only the feed with mainly recommendation-based content compared to the feed with follower-based content. Furthermore, the physical and mental health effects of high screen time on people are also discussed, such as excessive use of the application. The results showed that the study participants' screen time on TikTok increased when they used the recommendation-based feed. Almost all study participants liked this feed more than the other, which opened discussion about the necessity of the follower-based flow. However, the study participants' total screen time was the same, regardless of feed, which meant that they used other apps to fill in the time. This raises the question of whether the use of specific apps really can be adjusted to change the total screen time, or if one should examine the usage of entire categories of applications.

Background: Since its publication in 1997, Jennifer Aaker’s brand personality model has been challenged but none of the publications have had the same seminal effect. Additionally, differences in perceptions of Aaker’s personalities have been found which suggests a gap of knowledge to research. With the development of social media, customers begin to be more engaged with the brands. Purpose: The goal of this study is to explore European airlines’ brand personalities and Gen Z’s perception of the personalities through brands’ TikTok content by using Jennifer Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions. Additionally, social media engagement is used as a tool to investigate the significance of social media for brands. Method: An exploratory qualitative deductive study, with an exploratory nature and an experimental design, applying semi-structured interview methods with a sample size of 25 participants. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that Aaker’s personality traits are somewhat still relevant to Gen Z’s perception of them but there are traits that could be added which have been argued for by other scholars as well before. These additional traits should include negative traits and traits that show extroversion and introversion, for instance.

Thanks to the BookTok community, adult romance author Colleen Hoover has taken the world by storm. Anyone that has had access to TikTok within the past year has probably had a Colleen Hoover book appear in video on their “For You Page,” the page on TikTok where users can scroll through content that follows an algorithm which learns about the user’s specific interests. However, Hoover has been writing and publishing novels since 2012. She had already published more than a dozen novels by 2020, yet her popularity has only grown since she made her appearance on social media. Her book entitled It Ends with Us has exponentially went up in sales in 2021, five years after its initial release. By the end of the book’s first month on the market, it had sold 21,000 copies. The author noticed a bump in sales in the last quarter of 2020, and by 2021, that bump in sales became an exponential growth in sales: 308,000 copies sold in only one year. Many critics believe that this growth in sales can contribute its success to TikTok, and specifically BookTok. Now, in 2022, over four million copies of It Ends with Us have been sold, and 20 million of Hoover’s books have been sold across the globe. This research will take a look at how social media has a direct effect on the publishing industry and the consumption of literature, specifically looking into the phenomenon of Colleen Hoover. She has learned how to use her presence on social media platforms for marketing, while also simultaneously having her books marketed by her within the different social media communities. Social media is not going away anytime soon, so also having authors learn to use social media to their advantage can also help them to accelerate their rate of sales of their novels as well. Learning to analyze behaviors of social media platforms, learning current trends to make the author’s books more relevant to their markets, and interacting with audiences and fans can be quite beneficial to all authors. Colleen Hoover has made her social media presence quite prevalent, so taking a look into the tactics she uses, the posts she makes, and the events she holds to interact with her fans can be fascinating to study and learn how to use for other authors as well.

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In the present day, excessive social media use has become synonymous with the younger generation. Prolonged social media interaction has resulted in new terminology describing the compulsive need for internet and social media use: internet addiction. This is a new term, and while it has not been defined as a clinical addiction used in acute care settings (Zahrai et al., 2022), it is important to understand its symptoms, like excessive social media use. Given the rapid speed of social media integration in modern society, it is important to investigate how excessive social media use (ESMU), as defined by Zahrai et al., 2022, affects the way information is trusted. The present study intends to contribute to the understanding of trust dynamics in the era of mass media consumption, thereby studying if college students with ESMU show signs of trust when viewing a news report from a TikTok video, or from a video emulating a traditional news presentation. Another area of investigation for the current study is if the presence of a beauty filter placed on the presenter affects the trust of the participants. Further, if sex at birth has a significant difference in TikTok compulsivity (as defined by Meerkerk et. al, 2009 internet compulsivity scale), trust in news media, and trust in the studies presentation. 94 participants, who were all aged 18 or older and undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida living in the United States, completed an online survey-based questionnaire. The study consisted of a TikTok-modified Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS), a Trust in News Media Scale, and a post-experiment-questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned one of four fake-news presentations. All the videos had the same presenter and script, but differed in orientation (either horizontal, like a news story seen on a television, or vertical, like a TikTok video) and if there was a beauty filter placed upon the presenter. This created four conditions for participants. The results suggest that there is no difference in trust between any of the video conditions, regardless of orientation or filter. Furthermore, the results indicate that males have less TikTok compulsivity compared to females. In conclusion, the results suggest that there are differences in the sexes when it comes to TikTok compulsivity, however this does not affect the way individuals trust a news presentation. Furthermore, there is no difference in sex when it comes to trusting the news media. This suggests that college students with ESMU are spending more time on TikTok, and not displaying a deferral of risk when it comes to consuming information from the news. Further, college students with ESMU are not affected by a filter or the orientation of a video when receiving news. This indicates that they are both equally distrusting and trusting of news regardless of the platform it is received.