As audiences continue to shift to short form vertical video to receive their news, we at Mississippi Today have adapted to this challenge by bringing our high impact, award-winning investigations directly to our readers’ TikTok feed. On TikTok we’ve broken down a 4 month investigation into a powerful state lawmaker who steered millions in taxpayer dollars to renovate a private country club, golf course and the road he lives on in his home county. We’ve also adapted a 6 month investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s use of inmates on his family’s chicken farm as well as providing our audience key updates on when their legislature acted upon a hotly debated income tax cut. Through utilizing TikTok, we at Mississippi Today have been able to reach a wider, younger and more diverse audience that would not have found this reporting if not for our presence on the platform.
This success has only been accomplished through the willingness and collaboration of our reporters. Through instilling script writing processes and sharing metrics surrounding this repackaged reporting, we have been able to effectively communicate the why behind this new endeavor, as well as create as seamless a process possible for our reporters. Our video efforts have shown us that audiences are not losing interest in journalism, they are just seeking it in the formats that resonate with them. Without the buy-in from our journalists, these efforts would not be yielding the same impact.
As we start including video views and engagement as part of our broader metrics, it’s reshaped how we think about the depth of our audience and the overall impact a single story can have once it is published. We now consider video as a necessary part of the engagement workflow and continue to look for to ways we can include this medium in future reporting.
