It seems that the younger generations have an ambivalent relationship with the media. If they have little confidence in the different means of accessing news and in journalists, young people are nonetheless interested in news
Younger generations don't follow the news in the same way as their elders.
Image: Jovan Doncic
Younger generations keep up with the news in different ways to their elders. Rather than turning to traditional media such as radio, television and newspapers, they instead prefer social networks, where they generally find more specific news related to their interests.
It seems that the younger generations have an ambivalent relationship with the media. If they have little confidence in the different means of accessing news and in journalists, young people are nonetheless interested in news. The latest "Digital News Report" from the Reuters Institute details the media consumption of people aged 18 to 34. This age group encompasses two subgroups: the "social natives," young adults aged 18 to 24 who grew up with social networks; and the "digital natives," the 25-34 year olds who grew up with digital technology, but before the rise of social networks.
It turns out that they do not have the same relationship with the different ways of accessing news. Some 45% of Brits aged between 25 and 34 go to the website or mobile app of a general media outlet to follow the news. In comparison, only 28% of those aged 18 to 24 do the same. The latter are more likely to get their news from social networks, aggregator sites and search engines than their elders.
They appear to be particularly fond of highly visual news sources like Instagram, Telegram and more recently TikTok. In just a few years, the Chinese application has become part of the media routine of "social natives." Thus, 8% of British people between 18 and 24 years old use it to follow the latest news. However, they are much more likely to use Twitter (21%) and Instagram (17%) for this purpose. If their elders, the "digital natives," also get their information on social networks, they are much more loyal to Meta, with which they grew up.
Young generations prefer social networks to traditional media for many reasons. They appreciate the informal tone of the news content these platforms host, as well as the freedom of approach they allow. "On TV we always see the same things, but on YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, we have a range of diversity," an 18-year-old Brazilian man told Reuters Institute researchers. "We can get all this and see that there is diversity, society far beyond just what we live."