The Current Profile of Science Communication on TikTok

Abstract

In the ‘eye-catching economy ’context, a micro-video platform called TikTok (ByteDance, Beijing, China) was born and expanded rapidly. To date, there are various scientific accounts on TikTok. This essay aims to establish a current profile of science communication on TikTok. After selecting five scientific accounts and analysing the top ten most-frequently viewed videos from each, it was found that science communication on TikTok (1) is User Generated Content (UGC) with distinctive styles that are suitable for laypeople; (2) attaches importance to the audience’s learning experience, while leaving the cognitive learning outcomes able to be further improved; (3) uses ‘comments’ section as a platform for dialogue with the audience and; (4) adopts hashtags to increase video popularity.