Abstract

FORJA-PENA, Tania. Engagement of the Spanish, English and German health ministries on TikTok. Universitas [online]. 2022, n.36, pp.173-194. ISSN 1390-8634.  https://doi.org/10.17163/uni.n36.2022.07.

During the pandemic caused by Covid-19, government-dependent institutions had to take on numerous challenges, including communication efforts to inform citizens about the situation. One of the main communication channels was social networks and, among them, the emerging social network TikTok. This study addresses the analysis of the engagement of three European ministries of health, that of Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, on the social network TikTok. The objective of the study is to conclude which are the communication strategies of each profile and which content achieved greater engagement with users. These countries are the only ones that have a profile on the social network, and they were created during the pandemic caused by Covid-19, so the work of the ministries and the content created on TikTok was influenced by the health situation. In this study, the methodology used was content analysis, studying each of the profiles of the health ministries and each of the published videos. Each country took on the challenge differently, Germany was the profile that created the most content and the one that achieved the highest levels of engagement; The United Kingdom only published eight videos, but it achieved very high engagement figures and Spain, unlike its European peers, achieved more humble engagement levels.

Keywords : Engagement; TikTok; Covid-19; politics; health; Spain; United Kingdom; Germany.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )