| dc.description.abstract | In today's society, social media is a significant part of most people's lives, especially among
the younger generation. TikTok is a relatively new platform that has become very popular
since its launch in 2018. This is mainly due to its unique recommendation system, where
content is tailored for users based on their interactions. The algorithm-driven system also
leads to several problems, especially when false information goes viral. Disinformation is a
phenomenon that has existed for a long time but has taken on a whole new meaning in the era
of social media and, according to research, can harm democracy, individuals, and society. The
term refers to the deliberate spread of false information or untrue statements with the intent to
mislead and cause harm. Previous research shows that young people have much to learn
regarding source criticism and news evaluation. This, combined with TikTok's
recommendation system and its spread of disinformation, can be very harmful to democratic
society. Some research has been done on the subject, but these studies largely use a
quantitative method where young people's actual performance in news evaluation is tested.
They have also had a broader focus on social media in general without a specific focus on the
TikTok app. Therefore, studies that delve deeper into young people's thoughts, experiences,
and feelings regarding disinformation on TikTok are lacking.
The purpose of this study was to investigate young girls' views on and attitudes towards
disinformation on the social media app TikTok. In connection with this, also how they reason
about disinformation and its impact, both on themselves and others. Furthermore, the study
aimed to find out how they distinguish between true and false information. This was
conducted through three qualitative focus group interviews, each containing three to four
participants. All respondents were between 18–19 years old and in their final year of high
school. The questions asked during the interviews aimed to answer how they perceive that
disinformation on TikTok affects themselves and others, what consequences they see with the
recommendation system in connection with disinformation, and how their approach to media
navigation can be linked to the framework that this study uses as a theoretical basis.
The results show that young people perceive TikTok as a social media platform characterized
by extensive disinformation spread. Regarding the recommendation system with algorithms
and its impact on this, the respondents believe it is a contributing factor to the problem. This is because they notice that interaction with content, such as likes, shares, and comments,
results in similar content being exposed and gaining wider spread on the app. Concerning
their media competence and navigation in disinformation, all participants generally feel they
have a good ability to determine whether information is true or false. However, during the
discussions, it emerged that young people tend to fall for disinformation despite their
confidence, especially when it comes to information they classify as "less" important. On the
other hand, when it comes to "big news," they have a more critical approach. It is also this
type of "less" important information that young people feel less need to verify, as they believe
it "doesn't really matter if this is true or not." In their approach to assessing true and false
information, it emerged that young people use a variety of resources. These include
examining the message's design, the source, the post's popularity, and seeking help from
friends and family. An interesting aspect in relation to this was that their choice of resource
varied depending on the situation at hand, and not in the order presented by the study's
theoretical framework.
In summary, it should be mentioned that this study, with its qualitative method, has been able
to extract in-depth knowledge about the young people's own reflections and experiences.
Therefore, the results can not be applied to a larger population. With the results in hand, it can
be concluded that there is still much to investigate regarding young people, disinformation,
and TikTok. In the future, it would therefore be valuable to conduct more extensive studies to,
for example, gain knowledge about how young people actually perform in their content
navigation on TikTok. Additionally, more qualitative studies where alternative groups of
young people are studied can be useful. | sv |
