Platformed Journalistic Authority on TikTok: an Integrative Review of News Credibility, Creator Practices, and Algorithmic Gatekeeping

Abstract

Short-form social video has moved from the margins of digital culture into the infrastructure of contemporary news circulation, yet the conditions under which journalistic authority survives platform adaptation remain unsettled. This integrative review synthesises 27 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2022 and 26 July 2026 on TikTok-centred journalism, social-media news credibility, news creators, platform affordances, algorithmic gatekeeping, and audience verification. A structured web-based scholarly search was conducted across publisher platforms and journal repositories, followed by relevance screening, source verification, data extraction, and thematic synthesis. Six recurring patterns emerged. First, news organisations increasingly adopt platform-native audiovisual, humorous, personalised, and interactive forms without necessarily abandoning core journalistic norms. Second, authority is becoming personified: visible journalists and creators can function as trust-bearing interfaces between institutions and audiences. Third, audiences judge credibility through a combination of source authority, perceived accuracy, transparency, authenticity, and self-initiated verification. Fourth, recommendation systems operate as distributional gatekeepers whose incentives may privilege entertainment and reduce routine exposure to news. Fifth, journalistic quality on TikTok is best understood as a negotiated balance between epistemic discipline and platform congruence rather than as a simple opposition between information and entertainment. Sixth, evidence remains geographically concentrated outside sub-Saharan Africa, despite Nigerian studies showing that social-media credibility and literacy are already central concerns. The review proposes a Platformed Journalistic Authority framework integrating epistemic signals, relational authenticity, platform congruence, and distributional gatekeeping. The framework clarifies why visibility alone does not produce credibility and identifies a research agenda for Nigeria and comparable Global South news environments.