IAMCR
Unser Konferenzbeitrag untersucht das Nachrichtenverhalten der Generation Z mit Fokus auf Sozialisierung, Formate und beiläufigen Konsum.
The study investigates news media use by young audiences of the so-called Generation Z in the special context of political news in Switzerland. With the platformization of news and algorithmic-based news feeds, Gen Z has been shown to predominantly consume new media formats and develop a “news-find-me” attitude. This aligns with the international trend of a decreasing interest in news already reported by Reuters (Newman et al., 2022). This can impact young audiences' news efficacy and media trust, leading to challenges of misinformation. However, this paper argues that these negative developments do not go unchecked, as the decline in news efficacy and media trust is mediated by news socialization by family and (digital) peers.
Theoretical Background and state of the art
Young adults tend to avoid news and exhibit selective exposure, leading to “incidental consumption” and reliance on social media and influencers for news (Antunovic et al., 2018; Bergström & Belfrage, 2018; Boczkowski et al., 2018; Haim et al., 2021). This results in fragmented consumption and reduced trust in traditional media (Vogler et al., 2022; Russmann & Hess, 2015; Sawalha & Karnowski, 2022). However, news socialization, especially the family background, seems to be an important driver for news consumption among youth (Valenzuela et al., 2019; Edgerly et al., 2018; York & Scholl, 2015). Further research is needed on how news socialization (e.g., family, peers, educational institutions) impacts news consumption, news avoidance, news trust and news efficacy, especially as consumption of (digital) news is happening mainly individually nowadays.
Methods
The study employs an innovative method: An app-based study coupled with a three-wave survey before, during, and after the Swiss national election campaign. This approach captures comprehensive data on media consumption behavior from N=475 (331 female, 144 male) participants born between 1996 and 2012, circumventing previous study limitations and focusing on emerging news consumption patterns.
Preliminary results
Gen Z engages with traditional and social media, strongly favoring platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. They spend significant time on Instagram and TikTok, considering news following on these platforms as important as traditional newspapers. Regarding news formats, Gen Z values concise summaries and visual storytelling in political content and sources information from traditional news organizations, personal networks, and digital platforms.
In line with the conference theme, weaving together and discussing news with peers has a positive influence on news consumption. One of young audiences’ key motivation to follow the news is participating in discussion and social interaction.
Results also show that Gen Z incidentally encounter news and feel overwhelmed by the complexity of news. However, users with a higher level of news socialization (e.g., exchange with family and friends) show a higher news consumption, news efficacy and lower level of news avoidance. Greater news socialization is associated with increased trust in traditional news organizations.
The study therefore contributes to understanding the young generation’s media habits, impacting public opinion formation and political participation.
Institutionen
UC, University ofCanterbury
in Christchurch, New Zealand
IAMCR | AIECS | IERI
International Association for Media and Communication Research
Team
Dr. Jérôme Chariatte
Dr. Friederike Vinzenz
Prof. Dr. Diana Ingenhoff
Nabila Patwari
Prof. Dr. Alexandra Feddersen
Veranstaltungsdatum
30. Juni – 04. Juli 2024
Funktion
Co-Autorin
researchers, data scientists, preparation of presentations