Date

12-19-2023

Department

School of Communication and the Arts

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Chair

Sandra Romo

Keywords

citizen journalism, mainstream media, TikTok, Hurricane Ian, crisis

Disciplines

Communication | Film and Media Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the problem with depending on citizen journalism for news updates on TikTok during Hurricane Ian. To accomplish that, three types of qualitative content analysis were deployed to answer three separate but related research questions. First, a conventional content analysis was used to determine if the communicative roles of citizen journalists differed from their mainstream media counterparts during a crisis. Second, a summative content analysis was used to determine how effective crisis communications from citizen journalists were when compared to those produced by the mainstream media. Lastly, a directed content analysis was used to determine the motivations that underwrote user comments on TikTok videos produced by citizen journalists and mainstream media organizations. This dissertation was an important first step in determining why TikTok users often depend on their peers for news updates during a crisis instead of professional journalists. This study was based on an emergent design that was rooted in the cybernetic and sociopsychological tradition of communication studies. Results from this study indicated that while citizen journalists’ existence is necessary, exclusively relying on them for news updates during a crisis such as Hurricane Ian could threaten one’s personal safety.

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