Journalist, influencer – infoencer. More than just a Term? Blurring boundaries of journalism on the example of TikTok

Abstract

In the war for attention journalists’ attempts to gain particularly young people’s attention require new strategies almost on a day-to-day basis. The most demanding challenge is not to trade professional journalistic standards to the quest for market share and clicks, particularly on the platform that changes news consumption with an alarming speed: TikTok.

In Germany almost 60 percent 12-19 year old people use TikTok daily or several times a week – and on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram the game is fundamental different from older social networks: Here celebrities and influencers play a significant higher role for news and information than journalists do (Reuters Digital News Report 2023). For journalism, the question to which extent influencers are about to become the new journalists, is crucial – particularly when this means: To which extend do journalists adopt successful strategies and presentation patterns of influencers to attract followership? This leads to new wordings, such as ,infoencer’, ,jinfluencer’ or ,journalist-influencer’. Will the new term soon lead to new job descriptions?

The adaption strategies of journalists on the example of the platform TikTok is in the focus of the current research project. On a theoretical level the research is based upon and aims to mould Chadwicks theory of hybrid media systems, assuming that different types of media form a system that evolves through mutual interactions and evolving, versatile relationships among older and newer media logics.

The study aims to answer three interlinked research question:

• Which strategies being successful with influencers are adopted by journalists?
• What does this mean for professional journalistic standards and journalistic quality?
• And how does this change journalism’s role in society?

With the help of a content analysis and semi-structured interviews, the emerging study analyses the publications of successful journalistic providers on TikTok and compares them with classic successful influencer accounts.