A 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that young people spend over six hours per day with media, yet only 6 percent of respondents reported watching the news. According to the Sacramento Bee (here via the Newstribune.com), getting youth interested in the news “is widely seen as the biggest challenge” to the media industry today.
Others consider it a challenge to democracy as well: “How do you hold the government and its leaders accountable if you don’t follow the news?” wonders one former CNN producer.
Young people say they feel talked down to by mainstream media, but one college professor sees things differently: “They totally don’t care,” he says.
Ellin O’Leary of Youth Radio in Berkeley sheds considerably more optimistic light: “Young people are less interested in ‘the news,’ but remain extremely interested in information,” she says. “They’re coming up through a tremendous information revolution. They’re mixing media and formats.”