Comparing Crisis Communication on TikTok and YouTube: A Case Study of the 2023 California Floods

Abstract

In January 2023, heavy California flooding prompted users to capture and share video footage of their impacted surroundings. This preliminary study uses this crisis event to compare commenting behavior across three video content formats: YouTube videos, YouTube shorts, and TikTok videos. Using network and regression analysis to study 45 videos across these three formats, we find that users commented and replied to others more on YouTube than TikTok despite TikTok videos having more views than YouTube videos. Additionally, we find the most vibrant comment behavior under YouTube shorts. This work provokes additional research to understand the exact ways in which platform design and affordances can influence crisis communication around a specific event.