Short-term content, as we all know, is content usually seen on social media apps like TikTok or Instagram. The first app to introduce these short videos was TikTok. Most of the other social media apps started using this form of content. These apps try to differentiate themselves from others by calling this form of entertainment differently. On Instagram it’s called Reels, on YouTube it is referred to as Shorts, and on Snapchat the company named it Spotlight. What makes the short-term content so attractive for audiences, and how does it shape the message?
This form of content makes you feel easily entertained and is readily available on your phone. These apps keep you attached to your phone thanks to the algorithm. The algorithm adds to the addictive nature of these attractive videos as it curates what comes after each video, carefully observing your actions and reactions to the video provided by the system. This is one of the reasons people enjoy spending their time on social media. How can you use social media as a tool for research?
Using social media as a source of information is more and more occurring within the younger generation. Is it a good thing? Let us look at the example of getting news from TikTok.
Given this example, let’s imagine one is scrolling on TikTok and suddenly comes across a video seen in the screenshot image above. This video provides little to no context of what is actually the situation. These short-term videos are trying to achieve one thing and one thing only: views. You, as the user, have to dig a little deeper to get the actual message of this video. TikTok provides hashtags with every video to reach a wider audience, as well as associate this video with the whole group of other content on the app. Thanks to the hashtag, one can click to access a wide variety of content. Let’s say the topic of the Louvre being robbed is the topic of research. Clicking on the hashtag #louvre allows us to see all of these videos as seen in the screenshot.
Now, majority of the videos are created by people that are not proffesional reporters or journalists. The people on these apps create content commenting and speculating about a given situation. But nowadays more and more news outlets are providing their proffesional content for apps like Tiktok. Why?
Social media allows news outlets to reach a wider audience than their TV channel counterpart. but on the other hand this form of content has to be consise, it has to be short and to the point which most of the time leads to not complete or clickbaiting information. Another advantage is the spread of the information on apps like TikTok happens way faster than on a TV channel. News outlets on social media serve as a way to find a trustworhy source to check the information given. Most of the time these outlets provide useful captions or multiple videos on the given topic to feed the user the most amount of information.
So how does the medium of social media shape the message? The message is being shorten, consised and transformed into clickbaiting entertainment for the audience of these apps. The message is shaped in a way to provide for the algorithm.
Thank you for this blog post and for shedding light on the advantages of short-term content. I agree that short-term content has little value when it is produced by unreliable sources. Even if they have the best intentions at heart, sometimes, when discussing complex concepts, theories, or stories, more context is needed. In an age where everything has to be fast and provide immediate gratification, it is hard to slow down and take the time to delve into a rabbit hole.
I have also noticed how texts and videos are becoming shorter. I write book reviews, and I have this love-and-hate relationship with the ways in which books nowadays are being promoted. It is becoming more and more common that books (or other kinds of images and stories) are being described in a few keywords. Sure, it has its advantages, but with the abundance of information and content, I feel like it makes us feel so overwhelmed that we feel obligated to consume as much as possible.
This makes me kind of sad. There are stories that are complex and long, but then ask yourself: why? There must be some reason why someone has taken the time to write something so extensively. Shouldn’t we give it the same amount of attention and time that the creator gave?