The social media application TikTok allows users to view and upload short-form videos. Recent evidence suggests it has significant potential for both industry and health promoters to influence public health behaviours. This protocol describes a standardised, replicable process for investigations that can be tailored to various areas of research interest, allowing comparison of content and features across public health topics. The first 50 appearing videos in each of five relevant hashtags are sampled for analysis. Utilising a codebook with detailed definitions, engagement metadata and content variables applicable to any content area is captured, including an assessment of the video’s overall sentiment (positive, negative, neutral). Additional specific coding variables can be developed to provide targeted information about videos posted within selected hashtags. A descriptive, cross-sectional content analysis is applied to the generic and specific data collected for a research topic area. This flexible protocol can be replicated for any health-related topic and may have a wider application on other platforms or to assess changes in content and sentiment over time. This protocol was developed by a collaborative team of child health and development researchers for application to a series of topics. Findings will be used to inform health promotion messaging and counter-advertising.
UNSTRUCTURED Experiencing a traumatic event can detrimentally affect a person’s mental and emotional wellbeing. An online space can be a place to share stories, a tool to seek or provide support, or a source of psychoeducation for individuals impacted by trauma. TikTok has become an increasingly popular social media platform to source advice, validation and information regardless of user credibility. Research is needed to better understand TikTok content relating to trauma and the implications to young viewers. Thus, the current study explores the content of trauma-related videos, via hashtags relating to trauma, on TikTok. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive content analysis was performed whereby five hashtags with the most views relating to trauma on TikTok were selected and the top 50 videos from each hashtag were sampled: #trauma, #traumatized, #traumatok, #traumatic and #traumabond (total n=250 videos). A standardised codebook was developed to analyse the content of the videos and the metadata for each video was also collected (likes, comments and shares). The results showed two major content themes in videos relating to trauma: instructional videos (21.6%) and those that allowed users to disclose their personal stories (67.3%). The results of this study have several public health implications, including negative implications such as risk of vicarious traumatization, risk of inaccurate information being spread, and exacerbation of mental health issues. Positive implications can include increased social connection, validation and reduced stigma for individuals who have mental health issues.
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