Der Nachrichtenkonsum und die Meinungsbildung der Gen Z und ihre Folgen für die Demokratie. Wie bildet sich heutzutage die junge Generation ihre politische Meinung?

In recent years, a significant shift has occurred in how people consume news. Some people are increasingly adopting a “news-finds-me” attitude, relying on the algorithms of social media platforms to show them relevant news content. Others, overwhelmed by the negative emotions associated with recent news stories such as the Covid-crisis, the war in Ukraine, and climate change, have stopped discussing or consuming news altogether. According to the most recent renowned international Reuters study, the proportion of people who claim to be interested in news fell from 67% in 2015 to 47% in 2022 (Newman et al., 2022). This group of people is also referred to as “newsdeprived”: The group is characterised by a below-average use of news media across all channels (radio, TV, internet, social media etc.). The international tendency found by the Reuters Institute also holds true for Switzerland: In 2022, the highest percentage increase in Switzerland is again to be found in the group of the "newsdeprived". Whereas, in 2009, only 21% of the Swiss population were news-deprived, in 2022 the figure is 38.5% (foeg 2022: 124). Young people who have grown up around digital tools and digital news use, commonly referred to as generation “Z”, are overrepresented in this group (foeg, 2022). This generation was born between 1997 and 2012 and is now approximately between 10 to 25 years old. The change in behavior relating to news consumption has been paralleled by a decline of the highquality traditional press (the so-called “Strukturwandel”; see Habermas, 2022) due to a loss in advertising caused by the rise of digital media and platforms, which are more attractive to advertisers due to algorithmic targeting of audiences. This trend is raising concerns about misinformation and disinformation among the world’s leading experts in communication science, media research and political science (e.g., Strömbäck et al., 2022).

The risk of losing a common definition of "the truth" due to misinformed citizens and the ongoing rising political polarization1 poses an ultimate risk for democracy. Already, we notice that voter turnout among the “news-deprived” is much lower than among citizens who regularly consult high-quality news sources (foeg 2022: 4). It is, therefore, crucial to understand the news consumption and opinion-formation process of the new generation Z, as this generation and their behavior will shape the future of our democracies.

Institution

Université de Fribourg | Universität Freiburg
Department für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung

Team

Prof. Dr. Alexandra Feddersen
Prof. Dr. Diana Ingenhoff
Dr. Friederike Vinzenz
Dr. Jérôme Chariatte
Nabila Patwari

Jahr

Januar – Oktober 2023

Funktion

Projektleitung

conceptual design, project management, quality monotoring, implementation, analysis, documentation