News Media Consumption among Young Australians: Patterns of Use and Attitudes towards Media Reporting

Abstract

Research suggests youth make active choices about how they use and respond to media. Yet publicly available information outlining patterns of youth media consumption and how content is perceived – especially in relation to reporting of issues of pertinence to youth – is limited. Using an online survey of 2296 Australians aged 16–24, we measured news media consumption and perceptions of reporting on illicit drugs. The study concluded that Australian youth are not ‘deserting’ news media; indeed, they have regular contact with news media. However, youth regard mainstream news as lacking credibility.

News Consumption Behavior of Young Adults in Malaysia

“…Findings reveal that the older young adult age group consumes more news from almost all media regularly compared to the younger group. Studies show that with age people consume more news and show more interest in news [2], [4], [10].…”

“…These results are contrary to the findings of Saodah Wok, Ezhar Tamam, Jusang Bolong and Abdul Mua'ti @ Zamri Ahmad (2011) [4] which found that TV news consumption is highest among youth in Malaysia. Similarly, the majority of young adults in Hong Kong watch TV for news and current affairs (Chan & Fang, 2007) [11] and as indicated in the 2007 Roy Morgan poll showing that TV is the main source of news and information for Australian youth (Lancaster, Hughes & Spicer, 2012) [10]. However, a study from the World Association of Newspapers [4] reveals that youth today view the internet as their first choice for news and information.…”

“…In a 2007 poll [10], Australian youth (53.5%) selected TV as the main source of news and information, followed by newspapers (20.5%) and radio (16%). The study by Lancaster, Hughes and Spicer (2012), shows that TV news still remains the major source of news for youth (53.3%) however, online news (47.9%) ranked second.…”

“…This theory assumes that audiences are active with goal-driven media usage and the media possesses the ability to fulfill users' needs. This audience-centered approach says that audiences actively seek out specific media to gratify their needs and desires such as cognitive needs, affective needs, personal integrative needs, social integrative needs and tension free needs [10].…”

Online News Consumption and the Gratification Level of Its Users: A Foundation for a Media Literacy Action Plan

“…Researchers [21] found that newspaper readers prefer the digital channel when searching for news updates. The researcher and company [23] found that reading online newspapers such as features, international, national, regional, or local news preferred by Indian librarians.…”