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War goes Viral: Does peace or war journalism dominate TikTok?

Barratt, Amanda LU (2025) FKVK02 20251
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2024 TikTok has become an integral platform for sharing news about the war. The rise of TikTok has created an environment where everybody with an account can access, post and share content they deem to be news, fundamentally altering the news-landscape of conflict. These unprecedented changes to war reporting raise several questions: how is news on the Ukraine war framed on TikTok, how much of the content qualifies as news, and what impact does it have on the conflict itself? This study aims understand TikTok as a news-platform, and to answer these questions through an analysis of 112 TikTok videos posted under #ukrainenews and #ukrainewarnews. The content is analysed through Peace... (More)
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2024 TikTok has become an integral platform for sharing news about the war. The rise of TikTok has created an environment where everybody with an account can access, post and share content they deem to be news, fundamentally altering the news-landscape of conflict. These unprecedented changes to war reporting raise several questions: how is news on the Ukraine war framed on TikTok, how much of the content qualifies as news, and what impact does it have on the conflict itself? This study aims understand TikTok as a news-platform, and to answer these questions through an analysis of 112 TikTok videos posted under #ukrainenews and #ukrainewarnews. The content is analysed through Peace Journalism, exploring the compatibility of the theory and social media posts. This study finds that out of the sampled videos 58% included a frame on the Ukraine war, therefore qualifying as news. The most common framing was found to be war journalism, concluding that news reporting on TikTok in general contributes to conflict through increasing polarization and a win/lose perspective. AI-generated content and new forms of news challenge the compatibility of Peace Journalism and TikTok, however it is found that the theory still remains relevant in the modern day of war reporting. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Barratt, Amanda LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A Peace Journalism Analysis of International Conflict Reporting on the Ukraine War on Tiktok.
course
FKVK02 20251
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
TikTok, Ukraine War, Peace Journalism, War Journalism, Content Analysis, Social Media, Conflict Reporting
language
English
id
9191256
date added to LUP
2025-08-08 11:22:45
date last changed
2025-08-08 11:22:45
@misc{9191256,
  abstract     = {{Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2024 TikTok has become an integral platform for sharing news about the war. The rise of TikTok has created an environment where everybody with an account can access, post and share content they deem to be news, fundamentally altering the news-landscape of conflict. These unprecedented changes to war reporting raise several questions: how is news on the Ukraine war framed on TikTok, how much of the content qualifies as news, and what impact does it have on the conflict itself? This study aims understand TikTok as a news-platform, and to answer these questions through an analysis of 112 TikTok videos posted under #ukrainenews and #ukrainewarnews. The content is analysed through Peace Journalism, exploring the compatibility of the theory and social media posts. This study finds that out of the sampled videos 58% included a frame on the Ukraine war, therefore qualifying as news. The most common framing was found to be war journalism, concluding that news reporting on TikTok in general contributes to conflict through increasing polarization and a win/lose perspective. AI-generated content and new forms of news challenge the compatibility of Peace Journalism and TikTok, however it is found that the theory still remains relevant in the modern day of war reporting.}},
  author       = {{Barratt, Amanda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{War goes Viral: Does peace or war journalism dominate TikTok?}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}