Youth and news media : how the structural environment influences news consumption of young people
Year: 2020
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: News publishers are confronted with the problem that they can no longer reach younger people (EMEK, 2017; gfs.bern, 2018). Young people's needs for media consumption have changed in recent years. Studies show that young people can be reached through their smartphones and have specific demands on media coverage (e.g., Waller et al., 2019; Reuters Institute, 2019; Suter et al., 2018, Weichert & Kramp, 2017). In an ongoing national study on news consumption of younger people aged 12-20, we identified several conditions that have an impact on their news consumption. The study shows that news consumption is driven by the personal interests, at the same time it is determined by the structural environment. The structural environment is defined by factors in the family context such as access to mobile devices or news media subscriptions and by structural conditions like the school attended or the use of public transport. Preliminary findings suggest that legacy media have to reconsider and overhaul their news culture. News for young people differ from a traditional culture not only in terms of platforms, formats, topics and style. It needs to take into account the structural environment of the young people to ensure that news have the potential to reach them. The insights are based on data collected from 2019 to 2020 in Switzerland. The news consumption of young people has been investigated through a combination of quantitative data analysis (Screentime), ethnographic methods (diary studies, trace interviews) and qualitative content analysis (focus groups, interviews).
Author: Nadine Klopfenstein Frei
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3199098040