Why TikTok users watch this aspiring journalist (ft. Aaron Parnas)

Within a week, ‪Aaron Parnas gained more than 1 million TikTok followers and became people's go-to news source on the platform. We discuss his mindset, people’s critiques, and more

Jules: Aaron Parnas is an aspiring journalist who gained more than 1 million TikTok followers in a week while covering the platform's potential ban in the US. Even just 24 hours before the ban was potentially going to go into effect, there was a lack of answers and it felt like things were changing by the hour and people were really stressed out.

Is it going to be banned? Is it not? If so, what time? Is it going to be brought back though? It seems like it's going to be brought back. It's been a mess and Aaron Parnas became users go to source when wanting timely and trusted information. He initially grew on TikTok when covering the Russia-Ukraine war starting in 2022.

His family in Ukraine was giving him updates that he was able to validate, and at times, he was even getting accurate information out before the biggest news organizations in America. And then come the presidential election in November 2024, and again, the potential TikTok ban now looming over our heads in early 2025, his work has again broken through in a vital way.

But what doesn't happen much for journalists in the attention economy is first of all, consistent attention, and second of all, an emphasis on their identity - especially in a more positive sense. Social media and its algorithms are much more geared toward entertainment than geared toward truth. Truth and nuance are often boring to people on social media and journalists have to algorithmically battle with commentary from average users and public figures on topics.

More often than not, someone like the average user wins because their point of view often leans entertaining by default since they don't have the responsibility of journalistic standards to fulfill. They can also be outlandish and add humorous visuals. Making their point of view more unique, and in turn, their coverage gets in front of way more eyes. Which funnels into why there's a lack of journalist and trustworthy information on TikTok, and why Aaron has become so refreshing to its users.

Also, ideally, journalism is meant to be selfless. The information is supposed to be the focus, but in the media landscape of today, people are more geared toward personalities.They want their media consumption to be tied to an identity, to be more humanized, and good journalism can suffer from this.

But when it comes to Aaron, through consistency, along with having a professional account, and then a separate personal account, he's landing with TikTok users in an interesting way.

Let's take two minutes for you to get a feel for what people are saying about his work and to get an understanding of his background.