Gen Z, the newest generation of teens graduating into adulthood, isn’t just snubbing print, but have abandoned old media altogether, choosing to get their news from Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, according to a global study of those 18-32.
The shift isn’t just driven by handheld technology, like it was for their millennial brothers and sisters, but also by a nearly universal distrust of the media.
Consider: Only 4.6 percent trust the media, compared to 23 percent who trust drug makers.
And like many Americans, younger media consumers overwhelming choose political and social content on websites, blogs and streaming platforms that reinforce their view. Just 36 percent are “open to news that presents views different from their own.”
The stunning results of the study by Anchor Free for Jack Myers Knowledge Exchange are the latest that suggest old media will die if it doesn’t shift to the new platforms that have captured Generation Z through their smartphones.
In the study, published in the latest edition of Ripon, the magazine of the moderate Republican Ripon Society, 1,000 were asked to identify their two primary sources of news. Instagram led at 29 percent, followed by YouTube at 22 percent and Facebook at 15 percent.
Old media scored in the single digits while Gen Z and younger Millennials said their primary news sources are the social media pages and websites.
“When asked to identify their two primary sources of news, the majority of this cohort name Instagram (29 percent), You Tube (22 percent), and Facebook (15 percent) as the media where they are most likely to read/see the news. Fewer than a quarter of young people depend on newspaper or television news, with 8 percent reading national newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, 10 percent watching broadcast and cable network news, and 6 percent exposed regularly to local television news or newspapers,” said Jack Myers of his survey.
“By comparison, a stunning 82 percent of Gen Z and younger millennials include among their primary news sources Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Instagram, Snapchat and their desktop newsfeed,” he added.
Myers said that “young people inherently distrust news outlets that were lauded by older generations.”
But in turning their nose up at old media, they could fall victim to fake news, especially if they rely heavily on news sites that use mostly photos to tell a story, like Instagram, he added.
“Without the traditional filters of trusted news organizations and journalists, this new generation of potential voters may be highly susceptible to fake and biased news and may find it difficult to discern fact from fiction. Compounding this reality, Instagram — the #1 source of news for young people — is dependent almost exclusively on visual images, and none of the major social media channels invest meaningfully in original news reporting, nor do they provide user-tools for deeper investigative analysis of their content.,” he wrote in Ripon.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
