Where Does Innovation Come From? The Creation of TikTok Profiles in Spanish and German News Outlets

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Media innovations can emerge from multiple directions: through employee involvement in developing new projects or ideas; from the top, with strategic decisions coming from the management; or from both sides, with cross-cutting initiatives where the innovative output permeates all layers of the organization. This chapter examines journalistic innovation on TikTok through case studies of four media outlets in Spain and Germany: Maldita, El Mundo, tagesschau, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The findings reveal that all four case studies followed a grassroot innovation approach, with employees from different layers initiating TikTok strategies. Maldita’s account was created by interns, while innovation teams and social media managers spearheaded efforts at tagesschau, El Mundo, and FAZ. Key enablers included organizational openness, leadership, and prior successes on platforms like Instagram. External factors like technological maturity also influenced implementation. These cases illustrate how internal creativity, leadership, and external pressures converge to drive innovation in journalism.