The social media platform TikTok is becoming an increasingly emerging space akin to a search engine, where news and information are shared and discovered, particularly amongst young adults. Whilst the majority of scholarly research on media trust in TikTok has concentrated on practices by professional journalists and news organizations, the entities represent only a fraction of the diverse actors, contributing to the platform's news-sharing media landscape. Notably, citizen journalists play a pivotal role in generating and disseminating war-related content on TikTok. TikTok personae have the ability to build strong relationships with followers. Such relationships, which carry great audience loyalty potential, are investigated through parasocial interaction in combination with the uses and gratifications theory.

This study is a reception study of a young audience based primarily in Austria and Sweden which aims to investigate media trust in war-related content amongst ordinary individuals. Through focused interviews with 18 to 28-year-old TikTok users, reactions to viral videos will be assessed in order to establish trust factors and gain insights into their user behavior and news consumption habits on the app.

Findings indicate that the TikTok algorithm influences young adults and they approach citizen- generated news content cautiously due to potential viral motives amongst creators, particularly when addressing sensitive topics such as the Israel-Gaza crisis. However, they recognize the value of opinionated content as a tool for young people to build an opinion on political topics.

Keywords: Citizen Journalism, TikTok, War, Social Media Trust, Israel-Gaza Crisis, Para Social Interaction, Uses and Gratifications