Publication Date

1-1-2024

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Revista Mediterranea de Comunicacion

Volume

15

Issue

2

DOI

10.14198/MEDCOM.26498

Abstract

Social media are regarded as tools of communication and social influence. Notwithstanding this, TikTok’s majority audience in 2023 is made up of members of generations Z and Alpha, associated in previous studies with a participatory crisis. Given this contradiction, a research question is proposed: do young people use TikTok to consolidate social values such as solidarity? To answer it, the main objective is to analyse the use of TikTok as an instrument for youth participation in volunteer projects. A mixed methodology is used, based on a content analysis of the 150 videos uploaded to TikTok with the hashtag #voluntariado and which registered the greatest number of likes in the first quarter of 2023; and in a questionnaire distributed by the 50 volunteer offices of Spanish public universities among young people familiar with these projects. The results reveal a predominance of User-Generated Content (UGC) of an organic nature, narrated by young women who promote participation through predetermined templates of short videos in which they relate personal experiences in a neutral tone. A significant impact of UGC is also detected, both in TikTok users, who reflect their commitment through interactions, and as young people in the real world, who claim to identify with these types of publications.

Keywords

Digital communications, social media, social participation, TikTok, user-generated content, volunteering

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Journalism and Mass Communications

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