For the first time, a scientific study examined the news consumption of young people in detail. Author Leonie Wunderlich talks about the study in the BredowCast.
The common prejudice that adolescents and young adults are not interested in news and only hang out with their favourite YouTubers on the Internet is not true, says Leonie Wunderlich. Her recently published study "Use the News - News Usage and News Literacy in the Digital Age" provides scientific evidence for this.
"THE young people as a homogeneous mass simply do not exist," she explains in the BredowCast. "Within the age groups of 14 to 17-year-olds and 18 to 24-year-olds, we see immense differences in the way news is consumed"
The #UseTheNews study identifies four types of news consumption: the (1) journalistic information-oriented, the (2) low information-oriented, the (3) comprehensive information-oriented and the (4) non-journalistic information-oriented.
Das gängige Vorurteil, dass Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene sich nicht für Nachrichten interessierten und nur bei ihren Lieblings-YouTubern im Netz abhängen, stimmt so nicht, sagt Leonie Wunderlich. Ihre eben veröffentlichte Studie „Use the News – Nachrichtennutzung und Nachrichtenkompetenz im digitalen Zeitalter“ liefert wissenschaftliche Belege dafür.
Reference to Their Own Lives Is Missing
The study also asked about the relevance of journalistic content in the lives of young people and found out that many young people often do not find a connection between journalistic news and the reality of their own lives. The authors of the study therefore see the establishment of this connection as an essential task for journalistic news media.
The study was commissioned by the
German Press Agency (dpa) and the
Hamburger Behörde für Kultur und Medien [Hamburg Ministry for Culture and Media]. It was conducted by the Leibniz Institute for Media Research.
Links
About the Study
Leonie Wunderlich
Johanna Sebauer
Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
(28.04.2021)
