In recent years, social media has played an increasingly important role in news dissemination. Because of its convenient and engaging format, social media has become the new normal for thousands of people looking for their daily news. The Guardian Australia – an independent, trusted Australian news source – is one of the many news outlets who have tried their luck on social media for a youth-oriented approach. However, social media is widely known for its overwhelming amount of non-verified information and its distortion of truth. Despite their reputations, The Guardian and other news sources may struggle with the trust of consumers. So how do its ethical principles compare to those of traditional journalism?
In Australia, we’ve seen a massive increase of adults using social media to access the news. According to an ACMA study published in February, Nearly half (46%) of young Australians aged 18-24 said that social media was their main source of news. Through their TikTok account, The Guardian reaches their younger audience by posting bite-sized videos about important current events, creates quick, engaging updates, and caters to Gen Z and millennial humour by following video trends or memes on the app. Trusted outlets need to appear on social media, as young people are especially vulnerable to misinformation and unreliable news sources (Kue et al. 2019). Additionally, the multi-modal, participatory format of TikTok plays an important role in ‘re-engaging’ news consumers (Reese, Gandy & Grant 2003).
The Guardian Australia has amassed 285K followers since its inception in 2019. Posting multiple videos a day ranging from one thousand to five million views, it’s hard to deny that The Guardian has a massive viewer base, with the social media format allowing articles to be shared instantaneously across websites and apps. However, it can be argued that this is to the outlet’s detriment. Short video lengths and brief explanations can lead to the oversimplification of complex issues, but The Guardian appears to combat this by adding a link to the full articles whenever possible. While free-to-air TV remains the dominant source of news in Australia, especially for older Australians, social media is on the rise due to its ubiquitousness across all of our devices.
So, does The Guardian’s TikTok page adhere to their traditional journalistic principles? After looking into the news outlet, it is clear that The Guardian prides itself on striving for trustworthy, independent, and unbiased journalism. In Australia, these journalists follow the MEAA code of ethics, with verification being core to its principles. Points can be made about how rapid content creation for TikTok can impact the verification process, and how diverse viewpoints may be forgotten due to the short format. But overall, The Guardian Australia appears as a beacon of independent journalism in a country where the saturation of media ownership has become controversial.
To summarise, The Guardian Australia’s TikTok page effectively provides relevant and trustworthy news to hundreds of thousands of young people every day. While the overwhelming majority of information shared on social media is unverified and distortions of the truth, The Guardian Australia’s mission to ‘use clarity and imagination to build hope’ has been largely successful. Despite this, The Guardian Australia must remain vigilant in sticking to its ethical principles to ensure that its legacy of verified, trustworthy journalism lives on.
References
ACMA 2024, Communications and media in Australia series: How we access news Executive summary and key findings, February, Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Kue, KYL, Kong, Q, Song, Y, Deng, L, Kang, Y & Hu, A 2019, ‘What Predicts Adolescents’ Critical Thinking about real-life news? the Roles of Social Media News Consumption and News Media Literacy’, Thinking Skills and Creativity, vol. 33, no. 1.
Reese, SD, Gandy, OH & Grant, AE 2003, Framing Public Life : Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, N.J. ; London.
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