Magee 1

Miles Magee

Ms. Gonzalez

ENC 1102

2/29/24

Annotated Bibliography

Borges, Natalia Portilho. “User Gratifications in Social Media Usage – the Case of TikTok.”

https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/41410/1/203322282.pdf

Summary: This study focuses on finding out more about the motivations and gratifications

of social media to help brands understand consumer behavior better. The article talks about

the “uses and gratifications theory” which explains how people use social media such as

TikTok to fulfill their need for entertainment and the study uses this theory to investigate

why. It accomplishes this by analyzing quantitative research on TikTok users’ motivations.

In the research, it shows that the key factors that influence the usage frequency are forms

of gratification such as entertainment and information. The information found by Borges

research yielded valuable information for creators and marketers on social media that will

help them create new and more effective strategies and techniques for engaging viewers

and increasing their audience retention on TikTok.

Analysis: I selected this source for my project because it builds off one of my research

questions “How does TikTok influence user gratification to keep people on the app?” This

source dives into the key factors that give TikTok users gratification, and it analyzed

quantitative research on these key factors that helped further my overarching question. This

source is also related to all the other sources I’ll be using in this bibliography because
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they’re all going to be connected to my overarching question, but each source will be

individually breaking down and focusing on different parts and aspects of it.

Sharabati, Abdel-Aziz Ahmad, et al. “The Impact of Tiktok User Satisfaction on Continuous

Intention to Use the Application.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 16

July 2022, www.mdpi.com/2199-8531/8/3/125.

Summary: This study focuses on finding the main factors that influence users “continuous

intention” to use TikTok. This study also focuses on analyzing how the gratification theory

plays into what influences TikTok users to continue watching content and stay on the app.

This study then dives into the main factors that influence people’s “continuous intention”

to use TikTok and how they influence viewers satisfaction. The study uses Structural

Equation Modeling analysis to reveal the specific factors that are significantly affecting the

satisfaction of users such as informativeness, a sense of community, and popular trends.

They also came to find out that factors such as sociability, affection, and past time don’t

actually significantly affect satisfaction. This satisfaction with the content on TikTok

encourages users to continue to use and stay on the app. TikTok creators’ main focus is to

keep their audience engaged throughout their videos which satisfies their audience with

their content and in turn increases the chances of users staying on TikTok.

Analysis: I selected this source for my project because it builds off one of my research

questions that asks, “How is the TikTok algorithm made to keep viewers on the app?”

Another reason I used this source is because it connects back to my overarching question

for my research paper. To examine my overarching question and further my research I

decided to individually analyze every aspect of how TikTok persuades people to stay on
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their app by dividing up each aspect into different research questions that I then examine

through scholarly sources that I have backed research and data on each aspect.

SÖĞÜT, Yasin, and Alpaslan ÖNGEL. “Examination of TikTok Application in the Axis of Uses

and Gratifications Approach, User Experience and Entertainment Culture.” Dergipark,

2022, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2109198

Summary: This study talks about the importance of how social media (specifically TikTok)

has gained the opportunity to reach many people especially due to the Covid 19 pandemic

which caused many people to turn to finding means of entertainment inside their homes. It

explains that TikTok is a different type of social media because of the kind of content that

it has where anyone can become famous and earn money if they make good enough

content. In the article, it conducted a quantitative analysis that focused on revealing the

relationship between the contents of TikTok. The study found that TikTok has very diverse

content that ranges from negative content such as violence, sexuality, and humiliation but it

also has other content that isn’t negative and solely meant to entertain viewers. It also

focuses on understanding how TikTok has shaped entertainment culture today, its impact

on its users, and how it motivates users to continue to engage with the app. It explores the

gratifications that TikTok gives to its users and its effect on keeping users on the app. The

research in this article connects entertainment culture, social media, and the behavior of

users in today’s digital age.

Analysis: I selected this source for my project because it answers and further examines one

of my research questions that asks, “How does TikTok persuade people to come back to

the app again?” This question is important for me to examine and do research on because it

focuses on collecting information on the gratification/reward system that TikTok provides

that releases dopamine in your brain whenever you watch content on the app that entertains

you. This therefore persuades you to want to come back to TikTok later because you were

satisfied the last time you used the app, and you want to feel that way again. This directly

connects to my overarching question for my research paper which is attempting to examine

and analyze the persuasive nature of TikTok.