My journalism class recently discussed our thoughts about why statistics show that most teenagers and 20-somethings pay hardly any attention to what is going on in the world. This group of people are receiving less news than ever before in history, despite having the most access to news ever in history.
In class we are reading a book called "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News," by David T.Z. Mindich. All types of news, print, broadcast, and internet, are all in decline in young audiences. Mindich gives several reasons for this change in news consumption. One reason is because of the internet and it's easy access to news and entertainment of all types, it is easy for people to become "selective consumers" of news. In other words, it makes it easier for people to only read what they want to read, selecting topics that interest them and shutting out news that doesn't. The problem is often people shut out the news that is most important.
This problem concerns many people because these young people will someday be leading this world we live in. The group of people that pay the most attention to news, according to Mindich, are wealthy, white, educated elderly. However, this group has the most reason to be complacent. This is what news companies refer to as the Catch-22: Why cover young people if in your news if they don't watch you? But why should they watch you if you don't cover them?
The areas of news that are most avoided by young people are politics and national conflicts. An idea came to me in our class discussion about "desensitization," a term in which we have also discussed before in our class. Desensitization is the concept that long term exposure to media can make audiences progressively less sensitive or responsive to images and messages that made a strong impression when first encountered. I think that young people have become desensitized to news about the was in Iraq because of constant, daily coverage. Every time we arepresented with something about Iraq, we become less and less interested and caring. We are now at the point where we are totally desensitized from it having any impact on us whatsoever.
Another reason for declining numbers is negative news. There is a saying that "if it bleeds, it leads." This refers to news giving negative stories, such as deaths, more coverage than others. They think that this will grab the audience's attention but in my opinion people tune out to negative news.
I admit that I don't pay as much attention to news as I could or should. I read the headlines on the front page of a newspaper and generally go right to the sports section next because that is what interests me. In class we agreed that in college, students have so many things going on that it is hard to keep up with the news. After college we thought we would all pick it up, however statistics show that we won't because of the habits we are creating now. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. Only time will tell.
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