Research
Among the young, TV news ranks first
By Heidi Dawley
Jun 5, 2008 - 8:23:58 AM

We're told each breathing day that the internet and the young are as one, joined at the hip, the web being the place where under-30s connect, make friends, find their music and spend great hours roaming.

That all may be true, certainly to a degree, but in one very important area, news, young people turn to a traditional medium, and it's not the newspaper. It's television.

A new study reports that 15- to 29-year-olds first turn to TV for the news and that generally they regard TV news as the most credible source of news, more even than newspapers.

“TV is dominant in its importance and usage,” says Robert Barnard, partner and founder of Decode, a Toronto company that researches the youth market, and author of the study.

This would appear to be true in the developed nations. The study spanned media usage patterns of more than 3,500 people aged 15 to 29 in the U.S., the Netherlands and Finland. The study was commissioned by the World Association of Newspapers, based in Paris, to help the newspapers understand this age group.

That TV would be regarded as the most credible source for news represents a huge shift in attitude. Older generations still regard the newspaper as the place for the most in-depth coverage, with TV the place to turn for highlights and quick, visual snapshots of top stories.

Perhaps even more disheartening for newspaper publishers, newspapers didn't even rank No. 2 after TV.

In the U.S., TV came in well ahead, with 47 percent of those surveyed ranking it their first destination for news. Next came the internet and news aggregators like Google News, with 34 percent. Sites associated with TV and radio channels garnered 30 percent. Radio was next at 27 percent.

Paid-circulation newspapers came in at No. 5 with 23 percent, just barely ahead of newspaper web sites at 20 percent.

“The respondents, on average, would say that TV has more depth and credibility than newspapers. The message of credibility and depth of a newspaper is not getting through,” says Barnard.

But the study did uncover some reassuring data for the newspaper industry. For one thing, reading the newspaper is a habit that starts early, often before age 11.

Mothers, fathers and teachers are very influential in getting kids to read the paper. Some 24 percent of young people in the survey read a paid-for paper while still living at home.

That number slips back to just 13 percent when they move out.

Now here's the reassuring part. When these people eventually marry and start a family, they tend to gravitate back to the paid-circulation paper. In fact, 27 percent of those surveyed who were married said they read a printed paper regularly, as did 28 percent of those with young families.

Barnard finds that particularly encouraging.

“If the industry could bridge that gap, then we could build on that rather than maintain it,’” says Barnard. He believes the time period when kids move out of home provides an important opportunity for the industry because this corresponds with a life stage in which interest in news is actually peaking.