Young people's news consumption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Young people's news consumption - Essay Example There were implications for the decline in news readership for the role of mass media in creating an informed citizenry (Mindich, 2005). The value of news, whether being portrayed through television or via media, has been found to vary among different age groups. Even news on television fails to attract the interest of young crowd who often claim to follow the news only when something of particular relevance to them is happening. In fact, about 64% of the young adult viewers in UK have been found to have no interest for the news happening everyday on television. (Ursell, 2003) Today, the technology of journalism has improved significantly. The mode of presenting news to its viewers has been shifting from print age to digital age. But the culture of news consumption on daily basis has not developed yet among the young people. As said by Roger â€Å"With each passing year, young people grow less interested in the news, regardless of how it's delivered† (Roger, p. 1, 2009). With each passing year, young people have lost their interest on news, no matter in how they are delivered. (Ursell, 2003; Mindich, 2005) Statistics have shown that both newspaper circulation and network newscast ratings have declined persistently and the audience that was there grows ever older. (Even morning news shows, once thought immune to such trends, are now losing viewers.) â€Å"A Harvard survey found that only one in 20 teens and one in 12 young adults read a newspaper on close to a daily basis†. (Rogers, p.1 2009) On the other hand, the news casted online, fares a little better. In 2008, a recent study found that about 64% of 18-to-24-year-olds had viewed a newspaper online within the last year. But by 2009 that also had dropped to 54%. The figures are even more worrisome when the study focuses on whether a respondent had read online news at all - even once - in the last year. Hence, it is necessary to look into the matter that contributes to low news consumption among the youth. (Rogers, 2009) Causes of low news consumption among youth: Time constraints: The young crowd, especially the teenagers has lot of activities during a day. They have to attend school and some also have to go for work. They also have their other personal interests like sports, entertainment and socializing. As a result, they have very less time to have a watch on the news. It is not that they do not want to know what is happening over the world but the problem is that by the time they have a chance to look for news they become very tired. That time they want to relax more rather than to have a look on the news channels. (Hesmondhalgh, 2006; Mindich, 2005) Trivial and sensationalized news content: At times it has been seen young people criticizing the media for promoting gossip based stories, such as repeatedly broad casting the stories of the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the story covering Britney Spears shaving her head and going to rehab. The young crowd believes that t here are many newsworthy stories that should come up prominently and aired properly. They often get bored by the content of the news as they feel it to be boring, not newsworthy, trivial, and depressing. (Leadbeater and Oakley, 1999; Zerba 2004). Dated delivery approaches: The young crowd prefers more short writings both in newspaper and on the internet and for instant delivery on the television. They want the news content to be presented in a proper way that will takes full advantage of the medium through which it is being delivered and should be right to the point. . (Leadbeater and Oakley, 1999; Zerba 2004). Negative parental influence: Even though most of the families subscribed to a newspaper, many of these respondents are not encouraged to read the newspaper. . (Leadbeater an