THE KALEIDOSCOPE in the press
The Kaleidoscope: Young People’s Relationships with the News highlights the variety of topical and executional preferences that exist within this diverse cohort – driven by a fragmented news media landscape and a proliferation of news formats and brands.
At the same time, the report suggests this presents a new set of opportunities for news organisations.
It argues that:
News brands need to diversify their offers – not necessarily replacing what they are already good at – but by broadening topically and lightening tonally.
News brands should spend more time meeting those less engaged with ‘narrow’ news on their own territory - by investing in formats and products for social media platforms (and other aggregated environments).
News brands should more carefully consider who is creating news aimed at young audiences and how that content aligns with each platform’s unique codes and conventions.
The report highlights how growing up with Web 2.0 has conditioned how young people consume news, what they consider ‘news’ to be, and who they trust to deliver it.
Its findings support data from the 2022 Digital News Report, which showed that younger audiences across more than 40 countries are increasingly avoiding narrow news topics such as politics and Covid-19 – and often prefer to access news via social media rather than a news website or app.
How did we conduct the research?
The report draws on qualitative research conducted by Craft with 72 people aged 18–30 (24 per country) in Brazil, the UK, and the US. This work, which took place between February and March 2022, included news diaries, screen recordings, blogging, vlogging, and in-depth interviews with young participants representing a range of demographic traits, life stages, and news habits.
What did we find?
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Young people make a distinction between ‘the news’ as the narrow, traditional agenda of politics and current affairs and ‘news’ as a much wider umbrella encompassing topics like sports, entertainment, celebrity gossip, culture, and science. ‘The news’ is associated with mainstream, traditional media brands, who are expected to act impartially and objectively, even if there are doubts that this is achievable. ‘News’ is topically broader and afforded more tonal latitude. Alternative media is felt to operate better here.
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Rather than simply avoiding news, there is ‘news to be avoided’ – often to guard mental health. Because of this, some young people engage more with ‘news’ than ‘the news.’ Avoidance of ‘narrow’ news has implications for mainstream brands, who are felt to operate primarily at the ‘serious’ end of the spectrum.
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The proliferation of choice driven by the social mobile web results in as many pictures of young people’s news consumption as there are young people, though this report discerns a typology of hobbyist/dutiful news consumers, main eventers, and the disengaged. Each group differs in terms of their motivations for consuming ‘narrow’ news, how they encounter it, their brand considerations, and their content preferences.
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Having grown up in the digital age and been socialised by older generations to be critical of the information they consume. Somewhat paradoxically, mainstream news brands are judged by, but not inherently valued for, their impartiality.
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Far from the consistent traits often ascribed to them, young people like a range of formats and media to suit different occasions and need states, and are drawn to information that is curated for them. There will continue to be a place for text, video, audio, and still imagery – sometimes all in one piece of content.